Antarctica may have just set its highest temperature on record
Antarctica may have just set its highest temperature on record
In this Jan. 27, 2015 photo, penguins walk on the shore of Bahia Almirantazgo in Antarctica.
Image: Natacha Pisarenko/Associated Press
Antarctica, Earth's coldest, most barren continent, may have just set a remarkably unusual weather record. An Argentinian research station on the rapidly warming Antarctic Peninsula recorded a high temperature of 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit (17.5 degrees Celsius) on March 24, according to reports from Weather Underground.
If this is investigated and verified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), it could become the highest temperature on record for the entire continent of Antarctica.
The warmth at the Esperanza research station came one day after a nearly identical high temperature was logged at another Argentinean base, known as Base Marambio, also located along the Antarctic Peninsula. Interestingly, the mild conditions occurred during the Antarctic fall, not the height of summer.
Both of these readings are the warmest temperatures on record for those locations, and as weather historian Christopher Burt writes at Weather Underground, the Esperanza high temperature exceeds any high temperature reading on either the Peninsula or the Antarctic landmass in general. Data at Esperanza extends back to 1945.
More:
http://mashable.com/2015/03/27/antarctica-all-time-high-temperature-record/
