Rare Warm Spell Hits Antarctica in the Dead of Winter

Antarctica is experiencing some unseasonably warm weather in the midst of its winter, and it may have nothing to do with climate change.

While overall temperatures are still below freezing, the eastern portion of the continent has seen temperatures that are up to 50 degrees Fahrenheit (28 Celsius) above average in July. Antarctic climate analyst Stefano Di Battista said on X, formerly Twitter, that the average temperature at Russia’s Vostok research station was -76.7 Fahrenheit (-60.4 Celsius) in July, over 10 degrees Fahrenheit (6 Celsius) warmer than the average between 1958 and 2023.

Italian meteorologist Giulio Betti explained that the balmy temperatures in the middle of the continent are contrasted by unusual cold in coastal areas. The strange conditions are due to an atmospheric phenomenon that is abnormal for the area.

“For days, temperatures in Antarctica have been well above average, but this time climate change has nothing to do with it,” he wrote on X. “The cause was a rare stratospheric warming that weakened the Antarctic gyre, favoring strong downward compression.”

Da giorni le temperature in Antartide sono ben superiori alle medie, ma stavolta il cambiamento climatico non c’entra. La causa è stata un raro riscaldamento stratosferico (SSW) che ha indebolito il vortice antartico, favorendo una forte compressione verso il basso. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/gBZwR6Y6PF

— Giulio Betti (@Giulio_Firenze) August 1, 2024

Betti added that while this type of stratospheric warming is common above the North Pole, it rarely occurs above the South Pole.

Between July 20 and 30, the average temperature at one Antarctic research station averaged -54 Fahrenheit (-47.6 Celsius), which would be normal weather for the end of summer in the region.

“The heat wave on the Antarctic Plateau is extraordinary more for its duration than for its intensity, although some values are notable,” Di Battista told The Washington Post.

The unseasonably warm weather comes just two years after a record-setting Antarctic heat wave, during which an ice shelf the size of Hong Kong had a “complete collapse.” It also hits amid a global heat wave that saw the record for hottest day broken twice.

Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at Berkeley Earth, told The Guardian that the warm Antarctic temperatures has been a major factor in those global highs.

“Antarctica as a whole has warmed along with the world over the past 50 years, and for that matter 150 years, so any heatwave is starting off from that elevated baseline,” he said. “But it’s safe to say that the majority of the spike in the last month was driven by the heatwave.”