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EASTERN ANTARCTICA HAS recently recorded high temperatures more than 30 degrees Celsius above normal, experts have said.
A similar situation has also been reported in the Arctic. The Guardian reports that weather stations near the north pole showed temperatures also 30 degrees Celsius above normal.
A Norwegian climate scientist tweeted last week that a weather station on an Arctic island recently recorded its highest ever temperature during March.
The EU’s Commissioner for the Environment Virginijus Sinkevičius said the temperatures at the Earth’s poles are “unprecedented & can signal a faster climate breakdown”.
The Concordia research base at Dome C of the Antarctic, which is at an altitude of 3,000 metres, on Friday registered a record -11.5 degrees Celsius, Etienne Kapikian, a meteorologist from France-Meteo tweeted.
Normally, temperatures fall with the end of the southern summer, but the Dumont d’Urville station on Antarctica registered record temperatures for March with 4.9C, at a time of year when normally temperatures are below zero.
Gaetan Heymes of France Meteo described the unseasonably mild weather as a “historic event”.
Geoscientist Jonathan Wille wrote on Twitter: “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,” he added. “Never supposed to happen.”
The unprecedented temperatures come after the National Snow and Ice Data Center in the United States said Antarctica’s sea ice fell below two million square kilometres in late February for the first time since 1979.
A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released last year said it is virtually certain that the Arctic will continue to warm at around two times the average rate of global warming.
The world has already warmed by about 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Contains reporting by AFP.
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Climate change. Any bad weather is a direct result of global warming / climate change
@Christopher Byrne: Was It global warming that caused the flooding over a century ago or was it just a freak storm?
@Slippy ❤️: sarcasm mate…sarcasam. I live in Perth and we’ve has the coldest winter in the 6+ years I’ve lived here but Ive no doubt it will be reported as the hottest on record
@Christopher Byrne: higher average global temperatures result in more moisture in the atmosphere which makes storm systems powerful. So yes the strength of this storm was added today b the fact that GLOBAL temperatures are rising. Weather is a global system, it doesn’t care if it’s been cold in Australia lately. Some models suggest that Europe might actually get colder over the coming decades as a result of GLOBAL average temperatures rising if it continues.
@M: Yes, climate models. Very reliable they’ve proven to be….We can’t predict weather reliably 2 weeks in advance but we’re supposed to believe in these models forecasting 30 years down the track as gospel. Despite the fact most if not all of them have failed to accurately predict the future
@Christopher Byrne:
I think you’ve been living in the colonies for too long….mate.
@Tweed Cap: wow I don’t know how to even begin talking to you when you say something as clueless as that . climate is not the same thing as weather. Are you saying that releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere will not cause global temperatures to rise? …Why not?
@Christopher Byrne: don’t stray too far from home you’ll fall off the edge of the earth
@Christopher Byrne: I love listening to people who have read some articles and now know it all. Just proves studying and practicing science is a waste of time, we just need an opion
@Christopher Byrne: isn’t winter 2 months away yet? Also weren’t there record highs recorded in summer in parts of Oz? Also, true or false, don’t parts of Oz have a monsoon season and isn’t this just an extreme version of that?
@Dave O Keeffe: No, on all counts
@Boganity: I think you’ll find you’re incorrect on all points. Australian winter is our summer months. They had record temperatures over Christmas, and there is indeed a monsoon season in parts of Australia.
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