<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/01/antarctic-temperatures-rise-10c-above-average-in-near-record-heatwave>
"Ground temperatures across great swathes of the ice sheets of Antarctica have
soared an average of 10C above normal over the past month, in what has been
described as a near record heatwave.
While temperatures remain below zero on the polar land mass, which is shrouded
in darkness at this time of year, the depths of southern hemisphere winter,
temperatures have reportedly reached 28C above expectations on some days.
The globe has experienced 12 months of record warmth, with temperatures
consistently exceeding the 1.5C rise above preindustrial levels that has been
touted as the limit to avoiding the worst of climate breakdown.
Michael Dukes, the director of forecasting at MetDesk, said that while
individual daily high temperatures were surprising, far more significant was
the average rise over the month.
Climate scientists’ models have long predicted that the most significant
effects of anthropogenic climate change would be on polar regions, “and this is
a great example of that”, he said.
“Usually you can’t just look at one month for a climate trend but it is right
in line with what models predict,” Dukes added. “In Antarctica generally that
kind of warming in the winter and continuing in to summer months can lead to
collapsing of the ice sheets.”
Last month was the first in 14 months that temperature records were not broken,
but that followed an exceptionally warm July 2023, and it remained 0.3C above
any July before that."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
