To: i-node who wrote (845473 ) 3/26/2015 1:37:43 PM From: Wharf Rat Respond to "You think I could sell that to the water company for them resell to you guys" Christopher C. Burt , 5:27 AM GMT on March 26, 2015 Argentina’s Esperanza Base on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is located near 63°S latitude. Image from Wikipedia. WMO , the all-time warmest temperature yet observed in Antarctica was 15.0°C (59.0°F) at Vanda Station on January 5, 1974. Vanda Station is located near 77°S latitude but was occupied for only brief periods, mostly during the Austral summers, between 1967-1995. It now has an automated weather station and is occasionally visited by researchers. Base Esperanza’s weather records began in 1945 according to data published in The World Survey of Climatology: Vol. 14, The Polar Regions . On page p. 353 there is a table of climate data for Esperanza based upon the POR of 1945-1960. I am not sure if the POR has been continuous since 1960 up to the present. Base Marambio was founded in 1969 and is a relatively large facility with at least 55 year-round personnel, a total that swells to 200 during the summer. Map of Antarctica showing the locations of the various sites referred to in this blog. A table of what the highest observed temperature on record for each of the four sites discussed is below the map. Antarctic Treaty System in 1961 which defined ‘Antarctica’ to include all land and ice shelves located south of the 60°S latitude. Should this interpretation be used, then the South Orkney Islands, which lie about 500 kilometers northeast of the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, would fall inside the investigation area. That would mean that the British outpost, Signy Research Station (latitude near 60° 43’S), on Signy Island would have measured the warmest temperature on record in Antarctica with a 19.8°C (67.6°F) on January 30, 1982 according to research by Maximiliano Herrera. The third possible definition would be to include only the landmass of Antarctica (although the Antarctica Peninsula is actually composed of a series of islands connected to one another by ice sheets). In that case the recent 17.5°C at Base Esperanza would most likely stand as the warmest temperature yet measured on the continent. Maximiliano adds yet a possible fourth consideration: areas associated with the Antarctic geological shelf. See his note on his Wiki page of continental records here. He adds the following footnote: “If we consider the geological case, Amsterdam Island , (located at 37° 49'S and 77° 33'E), which belongs to the French dependence of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands and associated with Africa, lies on the Antarctic plate and has a highest temperature of 26.4°C (79.4°F) on 30 January 2005”.More About the Unusual Warmth at Bases Esperanza and Marambio NOAA December is typically the warmest month in Esperanza, with an average high temperature of 37.8°F (3.2°C). The March average high temperature is 31.3°F (-0.4°C), so temperatures on Tuesday, March 25th, were more than 30°F (17°C) above average. However, looking at the statistics in the World Survey of Climatology (referred to earlier) it is interesting to note that the warmest temperature observed at Esperanza during the period of 1945-1960 was a 14.6°C reading during an October and the 2nd warmest was 14.2°C during an April (also tied in January). So we can see that record high temperatures for Esperanza are not confined to just the summer months. Departure of temperature from average for Tuesday, March, 24, 2015, over Antarctica. Temperatures were more than 30°F (17°C) above average. Image credit: University of Main Climate Reanalyzer. adiabatic compression into a warm foehn wind that reached 44 mph (71 km/hr) at 09 UTC on March 24th, near when the maximum temperature was recorded. A similar event also affected Marambio on the 23rd.Jet stream image for Tuesday, March, 24, 2015, over Antarctica. An unusually extreme contortion of the jet stream allowed a ridge of high pressure to extend far to the south over the Antarctic Peninsula, bringing record-warm air from South America. Image credit: : University of Main Climate Reanalyzer. KUDOS: Thanks to Maximiliano Herrera for bringing this to our attention and researching the temperature records for Antarctica.wunderground.com
