Antarctica is hotter than SPAIN this week as mercury hits 20.75C for first time
ANTARCTICA has recorded its hottest temperature on record, with the mercury lurching above 20C for the first time.
The shock reading, logged by Brazilian scientists at Seymour Island on February 9, smashes the previous record of 19.8C, taken on Signy Island in January 1982.
It follows the setting of another record on the White Continent this week.
Argentinian scientists reported a reading of 18.3C at the the Esperanza military base – the hottest temperature logged on the continental Antarctic peninsula.
That record remains in place despite the new reading of 20.75C at Seymour Island, as the island is not part of the main peninsula.
It means Seymour Island was – briefly, at least – hotter than Madrid on Sunday, where the mercury reached no higher than 12C.
The pair of records will be checked by the World Meteorological Organisation for their accuracy.
Scientists who took the "incredible and abnormal" readings said they pointed to a dangerous trend at the Peninsula.
Temperatures on the White Continent range from -10C on the coast to -60C inland.
But the Antarctic Peninsula (the northwestern tip near South America) is one of the fastest warming regions on the planet.
Average temperatures there have jumped 3C over the past 50 years.
"We are seeing the warming trend in many of the sites we are monitoring," Carlos Schaefer, who works for Brazilian government project Terrantar, which monitors the Antarctic climate, told the .
"But we have never seen anything like this."
Earlier this week, scientists expressed shock at a record reading of 18.3C at the Esperanza military base.
It blasted the previous temperature of 17.5C on record at the remote station.
In a tweet last week, Argentina's meteorological agency disclosed the record – the highest logged at the base since records there began in 1961.
Climate change explained
Here are the basic facts...
- Scientists have lots of evidence to show that the Earth’s climate is rapidly changing due to human activity
- Climate change will result in problems like global warming, greater risk of flooding, droughts and regular heatwaves
- Each of the last three decades have been hotter than the previous one and 17 of the 18 warmest years on record have happened during the 21st century
- The Earth only needs to increase by a few degrees for it to spell disaster
- The oceans are already warming, polar ice and glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising and we’re seeing more extreme weather events
- In 2015, almost all of the world's nations signed a deal called the Paris Agreement which set out ways in which they could tackle climate change and try to keep temperatures below 2C
"At midday Esperanza Base recorded a new historic temperature record (since 1961) of 18.3 degrees Celsius," they wrote.
"This temperature beat the previous record of 17.5 degrees Celsius recorded on March 24 2015."
Global warming driven by human activities has been blamed for Antarctica's rising temperatures.
The continent's average temperature has risen 0.5C a decade since 1957.
Its heating ice sheets are falling apart, threatening to cause dramatic rises in global sea levels.
The rate of ice loss from five Antarctic glaciers has doubled in the past six six years and is five times faster than in the 1990s, according to recent research.
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In other news, an iceberg the size of London recently broke off Antarctica – and it wasn't due to climate change.
The Mont Blanc glacier weighing 245million kilos ‘could collapse’ sparking evacuation – and global warming is being blamed.
And, experts think climate change could cause areas of the ocean to turn a "deep green" colour by 2100.
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