| | | ANTARCTICA IS SUFFERING A NEAR-RECORD BREAKING WINTER — 10C COLDER THAN USUAL
JUNE 19, 2021
Antarctica is experiencing an unusually cold start to winter, cold which is threatening to break the icy continent’s lowest temperature ever recorded–the -89.6C (-129.3F) registered at Vostok Station on July 21, 1983.
‘Spare a thought for the hardy crew who are wintering down in Antarctica,’ reads the opening paragraph of a recent newshub.co.nz article, ‘who are experiencing near-record breaking cold this week of -81.7C (-115F)‘–logged at Japan’s Dome Fuji Station.
Antarctica New Zealand science tech Jamie McGaw, who is camped 2,400km away from Dome Fuji, at Scott Base, says he “can’t even imagine that extreme cold”.
“I mean, the coldest I’ve experienced here, even in wind chill, is the -60Cs and that is pain — that is any bare skin exposed feels like it’s on fire.”
Brutal scenes from Antarctica in June, 2021.
The continent’s average temperature has been holding some 10 degrees Celsius colder than usual this year.
The Changing Jet Stream
As a result, Antarctic Sea Ice has been growing exponentially, and is holding above the 1979-1990 baseline:
NIWA Meteorologist Ben Noll is keen to blame the chilly start to winter on a strong polar vortex, which he says has “kept all of these cold temperatures locked in over the Antarctic continent, and they haven’t been able to really push north — whether it’s to Australia, New Zealand or South America — they’ve been kind of stuck here.”
But this isn’t strictly true.
Recently, numerous polar outbreaks have managed to escape the icy continent.
And these have delivered record-breaking cold and snow to Australia…
…to New Zealand…
…and to South America:
Professor John Cottle, Antarctica New Zealand Chief Scientific Adviser, said July is typically Antarctica’s coldest month of the year, with sea ice extent peaking around mid-September. Given that we’re already seeing sub -80C lows in mid-June, this bodes well for both sea ice extent AND the chances of busting 1983’s all-time low of -89.6C.
I would love to watch AGW proponents explain-away that one.
McGaw and his team of 12, who are wintering at Scott Base, saw their last sunset of the season on the April 24.
They won’t see the sun again for another two months.
Sunset behind Black Island Antarctica, as seen from Scott Base — note the sea ice pressure ridges in the foreground [@Antzkiwi].
The COLD TIMES are returning, the mid-latitudes are REFREEZING, in line with the great conjunction, historically low solar activity, cloud-nucleating Cosmic Rays, and a meridional jet stream flow (among other forcings).
Both NOAA and NASA appear to agree, if you read between the lines, with NOAA saying we’re entering a ‘full-blown’ Grand Solar Minimum in the late-2020s, and NASA seeing this upcoming solar cycle (25) as “ the weakest of the past 200 years”, with the agency correlating previous solar shutdowns to prolonged periods of global cooling here.
Furthermore, we can’t ignore the slew of new scientific papers stating the immense impact The Beaufort Gyre could have on the Gulf Stream, and therefore the climate overall.
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