In recent days, Antarctica has made headlines for allegedly breaking several records followed by high temperatures. On the one hand, on February 6, 18.3 ° C was recorded in the extreme north of the Antarctic peninsula and, a few days later, a Brazilian researcher reported the measurement of more than 20 ° C in a thermometer on Seymour Island.
Now, both data must be verified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in a process that will take months. “It is important to verify that record of maximum temperature because it helps to form an idea of the weather and climate in one of the last frontiers of the Earth.” The truth is that, regardless of whether they are valid records or not, high and low temperature peaks can be part of normal climatic oscillations, but what is important is the trend of recent years.
Specifically, the aforementioned Antarctic peninsula is precisely one of the areas of the planet in which the fastest warming is taking place : according to the WMO, the average temperature in this region has risen by almost 3 ° C in recent years. “Until the 21st century, persistent heat events were not common in Antarctica, but in recent years they have become more and more frequent,” explained Mauri Pelto, a glaciologist at Nichols College (Boston, USA), in a note. press release from NASA’s Earth Observatory.
“The amount of ice that the Antarctic ice sheet loses each year increased at least sixfold between 1979 and 2017. Most of this loss is the result of the melting of ice shelves from their lower part due to the entry of relatively warm ocean water , especially in western Antarctica and, to a lesser extent, along the peninsula and in eastern Antarctica, “WMO reported in a statement. Furthermore, it is estimated that around 87% of the glaciers on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula have receded in the last 50 years.
Recently, NASA has published several photographs of Antarctica recorded by its Landsat 8 satellite that show the changes in the icy cover suffered during the February heat event.
