On February 6, earlier this year, the United Nations World Meteorological Organisation (UN WMO) has confirmed its new maximum region temperature record of up to 18.3 degrees Celsius (64.9 degrees Fahrenheit). With this, the Antarctica has now become one of the world’s fastest hot spots – an increase of close to three degrees century Celsius over the last 50 years.
According to the United Nations agency, the high temperatures in Antarctica are the result of a large high pressure system that produces “fohn conditions.” The result was local warming at both Esperanza and Seymour Island. Past scenarios like these had also produced favourable conditions for similar record temperatures, according to an official release.
The Antarctic continent has previously been reported to have a record temperature of 17.5 ° C (63.5 ° C) for the WMO – recorded at Esperanza Research Station on 24 March 2015. This is the first WMO record. According to a press statement issued by the UN agency, the new record of 18.3 degrees celsius was also established earlier in this year at the same Argentine station..
“The Antarctic Peninsula is among the fastest-warming regions of the planet, almost 3°C over the last 50 years. This new temperature record is therefore consistent with the climate change we are observing. WMO is working in partnership with the Antarctic Treaty System to help conserve this pristine continent,” said Professor Taalas.
The record was made after a comprehensive review of the weather conditions on the Antarctica by the WMO’s Weather and Climate Extremes Archive. However, it reported that, on 9 February last year, 20.7°C (69.3°F) was crossed in the Antarctic region.
The Committee also considered the instrumental arrangements of the two observations. There has been no serious concern with the review of data and metadata from Esperanza station observation operated by the National Meteorological Service (SMN) of Argentina.
