Antarctica may have experienced its hottest day ever on March 24 after the continent hit 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius) for the first time.
The warm weather was recorded at the Base Esperanza (under Argentinean administration) near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The recorded temperature was the highest since weather stations started tracking temperature in the region. The last highest temperature recorded was more than 50 years ago on April 24, 1961 at 62.7 F, according to Weather Underground.
The temperature increase was also captured at another Argentinean base called Base Marambio.
Researchers were surprised by the temperature rise because it took place during the Antarctic autumn, nearly three months past December, which is typically the warmest month in Esperanza with an average temperature of 37.8 F. During March, the average temperature high is only 31.3 F.
The data has not been verified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) yet, but if it is indeed accurate, Base Esperanza's temperature would be the highest on record for the entire continent of Antarctica. WMO has a complicated way of measuring Antarctica's temperature, as it can take specific areas to measure the temperature of the continent and might have left out Base Esperanza, Mashable reported.
Antarctica's new record-high temperature provides evidence that global warming is affecting one of the coldest regions on Earth. It supports an earlier study that the Antarctica's melting rate has tripled during the last decade, causing an ice loss of the same weight as Mt. Everest. Another study, released few days ago, also highlighted that the thickness of Antarctica's floating ice shelves has decreased by as much as 18 percent in certain areas over the past 20 years.
The Arctic and Antarctica are the regions where climate change is having the most visible and significant impacts. As a result, any changes in their temperature will affect the rest of the world, especially on global sea level rise.
