Researchers do have to verify the measurement taken by the Argentinian research station thermometer, but they say "everything we have seen thus far indicates a likely legitimate record."
UNSPECIFIED, ANTARCTICA - OCTOBER 31: The western edge of the famed iceberg A-68 (TOP R), calved from the Larsen C ice shelf, is seen from NASA's Operation IceBridge research aircraft, near the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula region, on October 31, 2017, above Antarctica. The massive iceberg was measured at approximately the size of Delaware when it first calved in July. NASA's Operation IceBridge has been studying how polar ice has evolved over the past nine years and is currently flying a set of nine-hour research flights over West Antarctica to monitor ice loss aboard a retrofitted 1966 Lockheed P-3 aircraft. According to NASA, the current mission targets 'sea ice in the Bellingshausen and Weddell seas and glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula and along the English and Bryan Coasts.' Researchers have used the IceBridge data to observe that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may be in a state of irreversible decline directly contributing to rising sea levels. The National Climate Assessment, a study produced every 4 years by scientists from 13 federal agencies of the U.S. government, released a stark report November 2 stating that global temperature rise over the past 115 years has been primarily caused by 'human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases'. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
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Temperatures in Antarctica have reached a record high. According to Argentinian research station thermometer, the temperature climbed to 18.3 degrees Celsius, or 64.9 degrees Fahrenheit. That beats Antarctica’s previous record of 63.5 degrees, measured in March 2015, by nearly 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
This isn’t necessarily surprising. Earth just saw its hottest January on record, and 2019 was the second-warmest year recorded. According to the World Meteorological Organization, the Antarctic Peninsula (the northwest tip near to South America) is among the fastest warming regions of the planet.
Its temperature has increased almost 3 degrees Celsius (37.4 degrees Fahrenheit) over the last 50 years, and the amount of ice lost from the Antarctic ice sheet increased at least six-fold between 1979 and 2017.
Researchers do have to verify the measurement taken by the Argentinian research station thermometer, but they say “everything we have seen thus far indicates a likely legitimate record.”
