Thursday's record-breaking temperature reading for Antarctica was confirmed by the United Nations. It measured 18.3 degrees Celsius (64.9 degrees Fahrenheit), which is a significant increase from last year.According to the UN's World Meteorological Organization, the record heat was set at Argentina's Esperanza research station in the Antarctic Peninsula on February 6, 2020.Petteri Taalas, WMO secretary general, stated that verification of the maximum temperature records is crucial because it allows us to create a picture about weather and climate in one Earth's last frontiers."The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest-warming areas on the planet, with almost 3 C in the past 50 years."This new temperature record is consistent with climate change that we are observing."WMO rejected a higher temperature reading of 20.75 C (69.4 F), which was reported at Seymour Island in Brazil on February 9, 2013. This was just north of the peninsula that stretches north to South America.The Antarctic continent's previous verified record - the continental and its surround islands - was 17.5 C (63.5 F), recorded at Esperanza, March 24, 2015.The Antarctic region, anywhere south of 60 degrees latitude, holds the record at 19.8 C (67.6 F), which was taken on Signy Island 30 January 1982.VerificationA WMO committee examined the weather conditions on the peninsula at that time, in order to verify the temperature records.It was found that large-scale high-pressure systems created significant downslope winds, which in turn led to significant local surface heating.The WMO stated that past evaluations have demonstrated that these conditions are favorable for record-breaking temperatures.The data and instrumental setups were examined by experts, who found no issues at Esperanza.An improvised radiation shield was installed at the Brazilian station, Seymour Island, and a thermal bias error resulted for the permafrost monitor’s air temperature sensor. This made its reading unreliable to be accepted as an official WMO weather observation.The WMO will add the new record from Esperanza to its archive of extreme weather conditions.This archive contains information about the highest and lowest temperatures in the world, rainfall, longest dry periods, maximum wind speed, longest lightning flash, and other weather-related mortalities.The lowest recorded temperature on Earth was minus 89.5 C (minus 128.5 F) at Vostok station, Antarctica on 21 juillet 1983.Concerns about global warmingAntarctica's average annual temperature is between minus 10 C (14 F) along the coast and minus 60 C (6 ft 76 F) in the highest parts.Taalas stated that the Antarctic has a poor coverage of climate observations and forecasts. "Even more than the Arctic," he said.Since the 19th century, the Earth's average surface temperatures have risen by 1 C. This is enough to increase the intensity and frequency of heat waves, droughts, and tropical cyclones.However, the temperature of the Antarctica air has increased more than twice.Recent research shows that a warming of 2 degrees Celsius could cause melting of the ice sheets atop Greenland, Antarctic and West Antarctic. With enough frozen water to lift oceans 13m (43ft) above the point of no return, this is possible.Celeste Saulo (WMO's first vice president), who is also the head of Argentina’s national weather service, stated that "this new record once again shows that climate change needs urgent measures.""It is vital to continue strengthening the observation, forecasting, and early warning systems in order to respond to extreme events that are occurring more frequently due to global warming."Agence France-Presse
