Temperatures in eastern Antarctica are 70 degrees warmer than usual
Eastern Antarctica on Friday recorded temperatures that are 70 degrees higher than normal for this time of the year, The Washington Post reported.
Temperatures in the eastern part of the continent have soared 50 to 90 degrees above normal, raising concern from the scientific community.
The Post reported that instead of temperatures being between minus 50 and minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit, they’ve been closer to zero or 10 degrees Fahrenheit, which is considered to be a massive heat wave by Antarctic standards.
According to a popular weather twitter account Extreme Temps, “extraordinary anomalies in Antarctica” have lead to historic records on Friday.
Extraordinary anomalies in #Antarctica lead to historic records today:
-Vostok 3489m -17.7C,monthly record beaten by nearly 15C !
-Concordia 3234m -12.2C,highest Temp. on records and about 40C above average !
-Dome C II 3250m -10.1C
-D-47 1560m -3.3C
-Terra Nova Base 74S +7.0C pic.twitter.com/w6Ry4Dy4wz— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) March 18, 2022
“In about 65 record years in Vostok, between March and October, values above -30°C were never observed,” climate journalist Stefano Di Battista told the news outlet in an email.
A researcher studying polar meteorology at the Université Grenoble Alpes Dr. Jonathan Wille also tweeted that this heatwave was “never supposed to happen.”
And there it is, Concordia broke its all time record temperature by 1.5 °C. This is when temperatures should be rapidly falling since the summer solstice in December. This is a Pacific Northwest 2021 heat wave kind of event. Never supposed to happen. https://t.co/VOW70Ioshv
— Dr. Jonathan Wille (@JonathanWille) March 18, 2022
March marks the beginning of autumn in Antarctica, when temperatures usually tend to fall, The Post noted.
Willie tweeted that the warmer than usual conditions over Antarctica were caused by an extreme weather system.
“[T]his is not something we’ve seen before,” he said. “This moisture is the reason why the temperatures have gotten just so high,” he told The Post.
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