A World Meteorological Organization (WMO) committee of experts announces this week (Wed 1 March) new records for the highest temperatures recorded in the Antarctic Region. The results are part of continuing efforts to expand a database of extreme weather and climate conditions throughout the world.
A World Meteorological Organization (WMO) committee of experts announces this week (Wed 1 March) new records for the highest temperatures recorded in the Antarctic Region. The results are part of continuing efforts to expand a database of extreme weather and climate conditions throughout the world.
A temperature of +19.8°C (67.6°F) measured at British Antarctic Survey’s Signy Research Station on Borge Bay on the South Orkney Islands on 30 January 1982 is a record for the Antarctic region (defined as “all land and ice shelves south of 60°S”). The committee reached this conclusion after examining temperature data from the Antarctic since records began in the late 1950s.
So what caused temperatures at Signy to reach levels more typical of a summer day in the UK than those experienced across much of the Antarctic?
BAS meteorologist Dr John King, a member of the WMO expert committee, explains:
Read more at British Antarctic Survey
Photo credit: British Antarctic Survey
