Antarctica has hit more than 20 degrees Celsius for the first time on record – less than 2 degrees below Wellington’s forecast maximum temperature on Friday.
Brazilian scientists recorded 20.75C at Seymour Island on February 8, The Guardian reported.
It comes at the same time as another record-breaking high at the bottom of the world, a reading of 18 degrees Celsius at Esperanza Base last week, the highest recorded temperature on the Antarctic Peninsula.
DEAGOSTINI/GETTY IMAGES
Antarctica has hit more than 20 degrees Celsius for the first time on record.
The new record at Seymour Island was described by scientists as “incredible and abnormal”. It was almost a degree higher than the previous record taken on Signy Island in January 1982, The Guardian reported.
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Carlos Schaefer, who works on Terrantar, a Brazilian government climate change monitoring project, said the temperature of the surrounding area had shown erratic movements in the last two decades, first cooling then warming sharply due to changes in ocean currents and El Nino.
“We have climatic changes in the atmosphere, which is closely related to changes in permafrost and the ocean. The whole thing is very interrelated,” scientists said.
Abbie Trayler-Smith/Greenpeace
Climate change is believed to be contributing to a big decline in the numbers of chinstrap penguins.
The Antarctic peninsula is being dramatically affected by climate change, with more melt and warmer winter temperatures, believed to be behind an alarming decline in chinstrap penguin colonies which are dependent on sea ice, The Guardian reported.
January was the warmest on record globally according to atmospheric monitoring group Copernicus, with records shattered in Europe and Asia.
