Temperatures in Antarctica have been consistently above average since mid-July, and this phenomenon continued into early August. Similar climate anomalies were recorded even before last year, although researchers had previously considered such extreme temperature swings “impossible” and “inconceivable.” The opposite happened a year ago, in 2021, when temperatures dropped to a record low during the winter period from April to September. The average temperature at the time was 61.1 degrees Celsius.
Now, in the eastern region of Antarctica, which is considered the most severe, where winter is in full swing, instead of the usual -50, -60 degrees, “only” -25, -30 cold degrees are recorded – I mentioned CNN. The end-of-winter “warmth” — even if it's below freezing in much of Antarctica — is a worrying development in a region that could cause catastrophic sea level rise.
Most of the Earth's ice is located at the South Pole.
If it melts, global sea levels will rise by 45 metres.
Antarctica has the aptly named Doomsday Glacier. If this melting alone would raise sea levels by at least 3 metres, it is hard to imagine the consequences for coastal communities.
Global Consequences of Record Heat in Antarctica
Antarctica could become more vulnerable in the future due to a series of heat waves, which could accelerate the melting of the ice, a leading meteorologist at a university research center that monitors the continent's weather has warned.
David Mikolajczyk stressed that increased melting could also change global ocean circulation. More specifically, melting ice in Antarctica is slowing down deep ocean currents, and their collapse threatens to have catastrophic consequences.
Currents play a major role in shaping the climate, and thus in making our planet habitable.
“What we’ve seen is shocking,” said Thomas Bracegirdle, deputy head of the British Antarctic research team. According to Bracegirdle, the current heatwave is rare, but the temperature peak is an indication of what to expect in the future. However, he refuses to make early predictions.
The European Union's Copernicus service, which deals with climate change, said that above-average temperatures in Antarctica contributed significantly to the global temperature rise in June.
Accelerated melting of ice
Climate change contributed 3.6 degrees to the heatwave measured in Antarctica the year before last – He said A study published last year. Although this year’s temperature rise is not as high as in 2022, it is more widespread and sustained, warned Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Scientists explain this phenomenon by the collapse of polar wind vortices, which until now usually occur every twenty years.
It has already been proven that cold air from the South Pole has made its way into the atmosphere, and through the resulting gap heat has penetrated to the Earth. This is a common phenomenon in the Arctic, but rarely occurs in the south, but now it can last until mid-August.
Incidentally, Antarctica warmed three times faster than the global average between 1989 and 2018. It turned out From a study published in 2020. In the first two decades after the turn of the millennium, 280% more ice melted in Antarctica than in the last two decades of the previous millennium. Sum it up Another study published in 2019.
(Cover photo: Icebergs and glaciers in Antarctica on February 10, 2024. Photo: Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu/Getty Images)
