WASHINGTON POST • September 24, 2023
In March 2022, temperatures near the eastern coast of Antarctica spiked 70 degrees Fahrenheit (39 degrees Celsius) above normal – making it the most intense recorded heat wave to occur anywhere on Earth, according to a recent study. At the time, researchers on-site were wearing shorts and some even removed their shirts to bask in the (relative) warmth. Scientists elsewhere said such a high in that region of the world was unthinkable. “It’s possible that climate change influenced the atmospheric dynamics like the tropical convection anomalies that led to the heat wave, but this is very difficult to quantify these things,” Meteorologist Jonathan Wille said. Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth, an atmospheric scientist, said more heat waves like this in Antarctica in a warmer world could have dire effects on the ice sheet.