New Zealand Local Weather Forum
Weather Discussion => International => Topic started by: Mark on January 10, 2022, 10:29:55 PM
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Antarctica climatology journalist Stefano Di Battista, who has closely watched and published research on Antarctic temperatures for many years, shows that the South Pole averaged -50.5C (59F) in 2021 — this is the continent’s outright coldest avg since 1987 (solar minimum of cycle 21), and the joint third coldest on record (tied with 1999) in data going back to 1957:
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A similar story is playing out at the North Pole, too — particularly with regard to sea ice volume/thickness.
https://electroverse.net/south-pole-suffered-record-cold-2021-frozen-cars-lia-conditions-strike-america-sunspots-fade/
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South America’s polar outbreaks have no doubt been intensified by an exceptionally frigid Antarctica. The entire continent has been holding unusually cold over the past 18+ months, with the freeze only appearing to intensify.
The first -80C (-112F) of 2022 was registered July 8, globally, at the French-Italian Antarctic base ‘Concordia’.
The mercury dropped to -80.3C last Friday, marking the first sub -80C reading since 2019.
Also worth noting, in just 53 hours the station dropped more than 40C.
This continues the cooling trend witnessed at ‘the bottom of the world’ over the past year and a half+.
As previously documented on Electroverse, between April and September 2021, the South Pole’s temperature averaged a just -61.1C (-78F). Simply put, this was the locale’s coldest six month spell ever recorded, one that comfortably usurped the South Pole’s previous coldest ‘coreless winter‘ on record, the -60.6C (-77F) from 1976 (solar minimum of weak cycle 20).
Also worth noting, the months of June, July, August and September (2021) all averaged readings below -60C (-76F) — a phenomenon has occurred on just three previous occasions: in 1971, 1975 and 1978.
More than all that, though, the entire year of 2021 (not just the winter) was also a record-breaker: The South Pole averaged just -50.5C (59F) throughout 2021, making it the continent’s coldest year since 1987 (solar minimum of cycle 21) and also the third coldest on record in weather books dating back to 1957.
The cold has continued into 2022, too, with the continent’s temperature holding below the 1979-2000 ‘base’ used by the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine.
Today’s anomaly of -2.6C (shown below) is actually on the warmer end of what we’ve seen in recent months — the continent has regularly held -5C below the multidecadal norm since the end of March, dipping as low as 8.6C below.
https://electroverse.net/argentinas-coldest-june-in-20-years-winter-strips-niagara-vineyards-antarctica-sees-80c-112f/
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Between April and September 2021, the South Pole averaged -61.1C (-78F) making it the region’s coldest six month spell ever recorded, busting the previous coldest ‘coreless winter‘ on record — the -60.6C (-77F) from 1976 (solar minimum of weak cycle 20).
Also worth noting, the months of June, July, August and September (of 2021) all averaged readings below -60C (-76F) — a phenomenon that has occurred on just three previous occasions, in 1971, 1975 and 1978.
The entire year of 2021 (not just the winter) was also a record-breaker; the South Pole averaged -50.5C (59F) making it the continent’s coldest year since 1987 (solar minimum of cycle 21) and also the third coldest on record in books dating back to 1957.
The first half of 2022 has continued that trend of cold, too; the Antarctic continent has held below the 1979-2000 base (an average used by the Climate Institute at the University of Maine) ALL year, with the most recent months (June and July) also finishing well-below the multidecadal norm.
And now this week, the Antarctic Plateau has plunged to -80.3C (-112.5F)–at the Italian-French station of Concordia–tying the year’s lowest temperature globally which was set at the same site on July 8–the planet’s first sub -80C since 2019.
https://electroverse.co/record-aug-chills-balkans-antarctica-112f-summer-snow-china-texas-breaks-low-temperature-records/