Earth’s poles are simultaneously experiencing extremely high temperatures, with parts of Antarctica reaching 40 degrees Celsius above average temperatures , while some areas of the Arctic have been more than 30 degrees Celsius above average, according to the data. of weather stations located in these remote areas of our planet.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the average temperature of the Earth in each decade since 1880 has increased 0.08 degrees Celsius and the rate of global warming has doubled in the last 40 years since 1981. Its increase is due , for the most part, to the amount of greenhouse gases that we have emitted into the atmosphere.
Torrid temperatures for Antarctica
Temperatures in Antarctica broke previous records on March 18, when the Concordia weather station – which is about 3,200 meters high – recorded -12.2 °C, about 40 °C more than average. Meanwhile, the Vostok weather station , also in Antarctica (where the lowest temperature on Earth was recorded at -89.2°C), topped -17.7°C, beating its all-time record by about 15°C Another Antarctic coastal station, Terra Nova Base , saw temperatures well above freezing at 7C. All based on weather models from the US National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.
And it is that we are facing a heat wave that is hitting both the Antarctic and the Arctic.
The Arctic has been warming two to three times faster than the rest of the world. It had been experiencing unusual temperatures in mid-March as it approached or was at the melting point , according to Walt Meier, senior scientist and researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.
On Friday, March 18, with the appearance of the full Worm Moon, the Arctic as a whole was 3.3 degrees warmer than the average from 1979 to 2000.
It is an unusual occurrence that both the north and south poles are facing this monstrous heat (and thus melting) at the same time.
According to experts, it would be a random climatic event, but if it happens again or happens repeatedly, it could be something to worry about as part of the evolution of global warming.
Climate scientists are continuously monitoring this strange occurrence at Earth’s poles . Let us not forget that, according to a climate action report by the European Commission (EC) of the European Union (EU), the period between 2011 and 2020 has already become the warmest decade on record in human history and the main cause of climate change are the effect of greenhouse gases that, these gases absorb solar heat, cause global warming (in addition, the burning of fossil fuels and other activities related to this industry, are other key contributors to the acceleration of the effect of greenhouse gases).
Without going any further, in 2021, the first part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warned that human-induced climate change has caused unavoidable changes in some parts of the Earth’s climate system.
Referencia: Informe Especial sobre Calentamiento Global de 1,5 °C IPCC www.ipcc.ch/sr15/download/
DeConto, R.M., Pollard, D., Alley, R.B. et al. The Paris Climate Agreement and future sea-level rise from Antarctica. Nature, 2021 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03427-0
Martin Siegert et al. The Antarctic Peninsula Under a 1.5°C Global Warming Scenario. Front. Environ. Sci., 28 June 2019 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2019.00102
