Antarctica logged a record high temperature of up to 18.3 degrees Celsius (64.9 degrees Fahrenheit) in the month of February last year, as confirmed by the leading climate scientists with the United Nations.
According to the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the reading was taken on February 6, 2020 at ArgentinaˇŻs Esperanza station on the?Antarctic Peninsula, The Independent reported.?
"Verification of this maximum temperature record is important because it helps us to build up a picture of the weather and climate in one of Earth's final frontiers," WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas was quoted as saying by AFP.?
"The Antarctic Peninsula is among the fastest-warming regions of the planet -- almost 3C over the last 50 years.?This new temperature record is therefore consistent with the climate change we are observing," he added.?
While the WMO accepted 18.3 degrees Celsius record, it rejected an even higher temperature reading of 20.75C (69.4F), reported on February 9 last year at a Brazilian automated permafrost monitoring station on the nearby Seymour Island, just off the peninsula which stretches north towards South America.??
The previous verified record for the Antarctic continent -- the mainland and its surrounding islands -- was 17.5C (63.5F) recorded at Esperanza on March 24, 2015, AFP reported.?
The record for the wider Antarctic region -- everywhere south of 60 degrees latitude -- is 19.8C (67.6F), taken on Signy Island on January 30, 1982.
Taalas went on to say that the rising temperatures is result of climate change we are observing and said that WMO is working in partnership with the Antarctic Treaty System to help conserve this pristine continent.?