Climate Alarm As Antarctica Hits Record High Temperature

Antarctica has hit its highest temperatura recorded, the reading of 18.3C has set a new and alarming record.

The previous record was set in 2015 with a temperature of 17.5C. Normally in the Antarctic summer, temperatures hover a little above zero.

Scientists now fear for the growing instability in the Thwaites Glacier — a block of ice at the base of the peninsula that is roughly the size of Britain.

The reading was taken at the Esperanza station which is situated at the northernmost tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

According to Randall Cerveny, rapporteur on Extreme Records for the United Nations/World Meteorological Organization, (WMO) the recording makes the hottest temperature seen over the length of record data for Antarctica.

The data has caused alarm within experts in the area and follows the worrying trend that temperatures all over the globe have been on the rise in recent years.

On average, 2019 was the second-hottest year on record, and the previous decade, that of the 2010s was, on average, the hottest decade ever recorded.