‘A huge anomaly’: Antarctica records winter temperatures 20C warmer than normal

The new heat record comes amid a prolonged heatwave that has seen maximum daily temperatures above zero degrees for three consecutive weeks. The Antarctic has been experiencing alarmingly high temperatures this month. The mercury climbed to over 15C at one weather station in June, soaring past previous winter heat records. Instead of the usual 20-centimetre blanket of snow, bare ground was visible in some areas. The unusual temperatures are sparking fears over the acceleration of climate collapse. Antarctica swelters in record winter heat Temperatures in the Antarctic reached a high of 15.4C on 6 June, UK newspaper The Guardian reports. The data was logged by the Argentinian Esperanza base on the Trinity peninsula. The new heat record comes amid a prolonged heatwave that has seen maximum daily temperatures above zero degrees for three consecutive weeks. The peak temperature broke the previous record set at the same station in 1998 by 2C. Raúl Cordero, an Ecuadorian climate professor at the University of Groningen, told The Guardian it was “absolutely crazy”. “It is also about 20C above normal for this time of the year. That is a huge anomaly,” he added. Melting ice found at glacier summit Other areas also registered much higher than normal temperatures as unusually strong warm winds from the north swept across much of the Antarctic peninsula. One Chilean weather station, Boonen Rivera, recorded temperatures of almost 13C. Researchers stationed on King George Island, 160km from Esperanza, reported large areas of the landscape where bare ground was visible after the mercury rose to 4.6C on 6 June. “Last weekend was very strange. The temperatures here went very high so everything outside melted,” Luis Muñoz, a Chilean glaciologist, told The Guardian. “Usually there is 20cm of snow and a lot of ice on the ground at this time.” Even at the top of the 500-metre summit of the nearby Collins glacier, Muñoz witnesses rain melting the ice. “There was a direct impact on the glacier, which should be receiving snow now. It should not be suffering ablation at this time of the year. This is obviously not good for the glacier,” he said. Antarctica’s future ‘depends on the choices we make today’ Earlier this year, a report highlighted how high the stakes have become as human-caused climate change continues to rapidly warm Antarctica. The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science, modelled the best- and worst-case scenarios for global warming on the Antarctic Peninsula, the northernmost part of the mainland. Under the highest emissions scenario, sea ice coverage could fall by 20 per cent. This will have huge impacts on species that rely on it, such as krill, which are an important prey for whales and penguins. Higher ocean warming could also stress ecosystems and contribute to extreme weather. Multiple extreme weather events in recent years have been linked to the burning of fossil fuels, including the deadly Valencia floods of 2024 and last year’s monsoon storms in Asia. Researchers warn that the continent’s future “depends on the choices we make today”, arguing that cutting emissions could avoid the most “important and detrimental” impacts of the climate crisis.