Weather in Antarctica 2023 -up

[Mark]

South Pole Below -100F

While mainstream headlines highlight western Antarctic sea-ice loss, often with little space for the volcanoes sitting below or the ice gains most everywhere else, the continent is currently posting some brutally cold readings.

On June 16, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station fell to -73.6C (-100.5F). The daily maximum reached only -69.9C (-93.8F).

This made for the South Pole’s first sub -70C (-94F) reading since September 3, 2023, when the station logged -72.3C (-98.1F).

Other Antarctic stations were also in the freezer on June 16.
https://electroverse.substack.com/p/south-pole-below-100f-north-atlantic

[Mark]

South Pole Falls Below -70C Again

On June 22, the low at the South Pole Station registered a biting -71.3C (-96.3F). That makes eight days this month with a minimum below -70C (-94F).

For several weeks now, a stark, colder-than-average air mass has sat over Antarctica, with temperatures in parts of the continent running more than 20C below the long-term average.


Most of the cold has remained locked over the ice sheet.

But in recent days, lobes of that cold air have been spilled north into South America.

Santa Catarina, Brazil, opened winter with hard frost and subzero readings. Bom Jardim da Serra fell to -7.3C (18.9F), the state’s lowest temperature of the year so far. Urubici dropped to -3.8C (25.1F), with Urupema at -5.2C (22.6F).

Central Chile is facing lows of -4C (24.8F) this week. In Argentina, the national weather service has issued cold alerts for parts of Neuquén, Mendoza, San Luis, Córdoba, San Juan, La Rioja, Catamarca, Tucumán and Jujuy.
https://electroverse.substack.com/p/south-pole-below-70c-again-sunshine

[Mark]

Antarctica has been anomalously cold for weeks.

As expected, the June average reflects this.

The provisional monthly average at Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station came in at -60.2C (-76.4F), some 2.1C below the June norm and the station’s coldest June since 2021. It was also the coldest month at the Pole since July 2022.

June 2021 formed part of the coldest April–September stretch ever recorded at the South Pole Station (data back to 1957) — the dark-season “coreless winter” when the sun stays set.

For reference, the South Pole’s coldest June on record remains the -64.3C from 2003. But this -60.2C is still well below normal, biting cold even by South Pole standards, and comes after consistence cold pulses, including a June 16 low of -73.6C (-100.5F).

While headlines chased a sliver of warmth along the Antarctic Peninsula earlier in the month, the South Pole was telling the continent’s true story. Vostok and Concordia monthly updates to follow—also set to be anomalously cold.
https://electroverse.substack.com/p/south-poles-very-cold-june-western