So far, heat waves have rarely been measured in Antarctica – researchers usually use it to describe a series of at least three days with extremely high temperatures.
Record temperatures have also been recorded on the Antarctic Peninsula, according to the report published on Monday in the global change biology magazine. The authors are scientists from Australian universities and the Australian Antarctic Division of the government.
Seven degrees warmer than average
At the Casey station at the end of January – in the Antarctic summer – extremes were recorded at the highest and lowest values over three days. While the temperatures remained at a minimum above zero degrees, on January 24 it peaked up to 9.2 degrees Celsius. This temperature maximum is almost seven degrees warmer than the average maximum at the station in the past 31 years.
Warm summers have an impact
The scientists believe that abnormally warm summers will have a variety of biological effects, not all of which are known yet.
Climate change affects even the most remote areas of the planet. What happens in Antarctica has effects, for example, on ocean currents and thus on the climate in many regions of the world, the authors write in an article on the website The Conservation.
The predominantly ice-covered area, which is larger than Europe, is considered the driver of the so-called global conveyor belt, the circulation of the world’s ocean currents. If the Antarctic ice sheets melt, the global sea level also rises.
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