Antarctica logs hottest temperature

An Argentinian research station thermometer recorded a reading of 18.3C in Antarctica, its hottest temperature on record.

A tweet from Argentina's meteorological agency on Friday revealed the record, reports The Gurdian.

The station's data goes back to 1961. The current highest temperature beats the previous record by 0.8C.

The reading was taken at Esperanza, the northern tip of the continent's peninsula. It beats Antarctica's previous record of 17.5C, set in March 2015.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, Antarctica's peninsula - the area that points towards South America, is one of the fastest warming places on earth. It has heated by almost 3C over the past 50 years. Almost all the region's glaciers are melting.

The reading at Esperanza breaks the record for the Antarctic continent. The record for the Antarctic region, the area south of 60 degrees latitude - is 19.8C, taken on Signy Island in January 1982.

Prof James Renwick, a climate scientist at Victoria University of Wellington, was a member of an ad-hoc World Meteorological Organization committee that has verified previous records in Antarctica. He said that it was likely the committee would be reconvened to check the new Esperanza record.

 "Of course the record does need to be checked, but pending those checks, it's a perfectly valid record and that [temperature] station is well maintained," he said.

"The reading is impressive as it's only five years since the previous record was set and this is almost one degree centigrade higher. It's a sign of the warming that has been happening there that's much faster than the global average.

"To have a new record set that quickly is surprising but who knows how long that will last? Possibly not that long at all."

Renwick remarked that the temperature record at Esperanza was one of the longest-running on the whole continent.

Prof Renwick said higher temperatures in the region tended to coincide with strong northwesterly winds moving down mountain slopes. It is a feature of the weather patterns around Esperanza in recent days.

Renwick stated that there were complex weather patterns in the area. However, the Esperanza reading was likely a combination of natural variability and background warming caused by rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

"The reason the peninsula is warming faster than other places is a combination of natural variations and warming signals," he added.

Prof Nerilie Abram, a climate scientist at the Australian National University, has carried out research at James Ross Island at the northern tip of the peninsula.

"It is an area that is warming very quickly," she said, adding it can occasionally be warm enough to wear a T-shirt.

A research from 2012 found the current rate of warming in the region was almost unprecedented over the past 2000 years.

 "Even small increases in warming can lead to large increases in the energy you have for melting the ice. The consequences are the collapse of the ice shelves along the peninsula," Abram added.

Nerilie Abram remarked that meltwater can work its way through cracks in ice shelves.

"Ice shelves already float on the ocean, their collapse does not directly contribute to rising sea levels," she explained.

According to Abram, the shelves acte as plugs, helping to keep the ice sheets behind them stable. Melting of ice sheets does contribute to rising sea levels because they are attached to land.

"This is a record from only a single station, but it is in the context of what's happening elsewhere and is more evidence that as the planet warms we get more warm records and fewer cold records," said Dr Steve Rintoul, a leading oceanographer and Antarctic expert at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

Temperature dropped to -89.2C on 21 July 1983 at the Russian Vostok station, the lowest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica and anywhere on earth.