Eastern Antarctica registers temperatures 70 degrees above normal

In the last month, scientists were shocked when a research station in Antarctica reported surprising warm weather. 

The temperature at Concordia Research station atop Dome C on the Antarctic Plateau surged to -11.5 degrees Celsius on March 18. While the normal high temperature for the day remains around -49 degrees Celsius, these readings were around 38 degrees Celsius (or 70 degrees Farhenite) higher than usual. 

It appears to have set a new World Record for the largest temperature excess above normal ever measured at an established weather station,” Robert Rohde, the lead scientist at Berkeley Earth, tweeted.

With more than 60 years of data, this record is unheard of in the history of climatology, according to a Meteo-France analysis. The extreme warmth in Antarctica raises concerns about long-term effects on the ice caps.

British researcher – John King at the British Antarctic Survey, noted that the short-lived warm currents will always have a small impact than that of the average rising global temperature. “Although if, in the future, such events became more common, there would be significant impacts,” King added.