Antarctica reports record high temperature of 18.3 degrees Celsius: UN Agency

The UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on July 1, 2021, confirmed a new record high temperature of 18.3 degrees Celsius in Antarctica.

“The WMO has recognized a new record high temperature for the Antarctic continent of 18.3 degrees Celsius on February 6, 2020, at the Esperanza Research Station (Argentina),” the UN agency stated in a press release on July 1, 2021.

With this record temperature, the WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said, “Antarctica has now become one of the fastest-warming regions in the world, registering a rise of almost three degrees Celsius in the last 50 years.”

How was the new temperature record taken?

• The new record high temperature was recognized after an extensive review of the weather situation on the Antarctic peninsula carried out by a committee for WMO’s Weather and Climate Extremes Archive.

What causes high temperatures in Antarctica?

• The high temperatures in Antarctica are the resultant of a large high-pressure system creating ‘fohn conditions’, which are downslope winds producing significant surface warming.

• This warming in turn results in local warming at both Seymour Island and Esperanza Station. Similar meteorological conditions in past evaluations have been found to be conducive for producing such high record temperatures in Antarctica.

High temperatures in Antarctica: Past records and Significance

• As per the WMO, the Esperanza Research Station earlier on March 24, 2021, had recorded a high temperature of 17.5 degrees Celsius.

• Along with the new temperature record of 18.3 degrees Celsius, the WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas confirmed that such high temperatures are consistent with the climate change we are experiencing.

• WMO has partnered with the Antarctica Treaty System to assist with the conservation of Antarctica.