Both Lazzara and Meier said what happened in Antarctica is probably just a random weather event and not a sign of climate change. But if it happens again or repeatedly then it might be something to worry about and part of global warming, they said.
The Antarctic warm spell was first reported by The Washington Post.
The Antarctic continent as a whole on Friday was about 4.8 degrees warmer than a baseline temperature between 1979 and 2000, according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyser, based on US National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration weather models. That 4.8-degree heating over an already warmed-up average is unusual. Think of it as if the entire United States, or Europe, was 4.8 degrees hotter than normal, Meier said.
At the same time, on Friday the Arctic as a whole was 3.3 degrees warmer than the 1979 to 2000 average.
By comparison, the world as a whole was only 0.6 degrees above the 1979 to 2000 average. Globally the 1979 to 2000 average is about .3 degrees warmer than the 20th century average.
What makes the Antarctic warming really weird is that the southern continent – except for its vulnerable peninsula which is warming quickly and losing ice rapidly – has not been warming much, especially when compared to the rest of the globe, Meier said.
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Antarctica did set a record for the lowest summer sea ice – records go back to 1979 – with it shrinking to 1.9 million square kilometres) in late February, the snow and ice data centre reported.
What likely happened was “a big atmospheric river” pumped in warm and moist air from the Pacific southward, Meier said.
And in the Arctic, which has been warming two to three times faster than the rest of the globe and is considered vulnerable to climate change, warm Atlantic air was coming north off the coast of Greenland.
Dramatic hot spells leave Antarctica, Arctic 40 and 30 degrees above normal
Source: Philippines Alive
