South Pole posts most severe cold season on record
While the rest of the world (allegedly-Ed) sizzled, the South Pole shivered with an average temperature of minus-78 degrees over the past six months.
The chill was exceptional, even for the coldest location on the planet.
The average temperature at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station between April and September, a frigid -78 degrees (minus-61 Celsius), was the coldest on record, dating back to 1957. This was 4.5 degrees lower than the most recent 30-year average at this remote station, which is operated by United States Antarctic Program and administered by the National Science Foundation.
While impressive and unexpected, scientists characterized this record as a mere blip and curiosity as both Antarctica and the planet continue to rapidly warm amid escalating extreme weather.
We first learned of this record through a tweet from Stefano Di Battista, who has published research on Antarctic temperatures. The legitimacy of Di Battista’s information was confirmed by Richard Cullather, a research scientist at NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, who provided the chart below.
The extreme cold over Antarctica helped push sea ice levels surrounding the continent to their fifth-highest level on record in August, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Matthew Lazzara, an expert on the meteorology of Antarctica and scientist at the University of Wisconsin, monitored the South Pole temperatures in recent months from his office in Madison with awe. In an interview, he said it was around minus-100 degrees on numerous occasions. Over the years, he’s traveled to Antarctica many times to support his research.
“At these temperatures, it is difficult to operate aircraft,” he wrote in an email. “[B]etween -50°C and -58°C you put the aircraft at risk with the hydraulics freezing up or fuel turning into a jelly.”
Once he visited the South Pole in late October. “I got to experience -50°C weather … with a wind chill beyond that. I was *thrilled* to be wearing my 75 lbs of Extreme Cold Weather gear to stay warm,” he joked.
Extraordinarily cold weather continues to grip the Antarctic Plateau. Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist who monitors world weather extremes, tweeted that temperature at Russia’s Vostok Station sunk to minus-110.9 degrees (minus-79.4 Celsius) on Thursday, which was just one degree (0.6 Celsius) from the world’s lowest temperature on record during October.
The current temperatures are still some distance from the coldest ever observed on the continent. In July 1983, Vostok plummeted to minus-129 degrees (minus-89.6 Celsius). Satellites have detected temperatures as low as minus-144 degrees (minus-98 Celsius).
Behind the extreme cold
Scientists credited a very strong polar vortex, or a ring of strong winds in the stratosphere, surrounding Antarctica for the intensity of the cold.
The stratospheric polar vortex is a seasonal phenomenon. In the Southern Hemisphere, it forms in the fall, persists through the winter and weakens before reversing course in spring.
The strength of the vortex has connections to weather at the ground, said Krzysztof Wargan, a research scientist with NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office. He said a strong vortex is associated with low surface temperatures.
Whether the vortex is strong or weak depends on a cycle known as Southern Annular Mode (SAM). Right now, the mode is in its positive phase and the vortex is intense.
“Basically, the winds in the polar stratosphere have been stronger than normal, which is associated with shifting the jet stream toward the pole,” Amy Butler, an atmospheric scientist at NOAA, wrote in a message. “This keeps the cold air locked up over much of Antarctica.”
Butler wrote that the strong polar vortex not only makes it very cold over Antarctica but accelerates processes that lead to stratospheric ozone depletion, which in turn can strengthen the vortex even more. This year’s ozone hole over Antarctica is much bigger than average at around 24 million square kilometers, a reflection of the vortex’s strength.
Although the stratospheric ozone layer is on the mend since some ozone-depleting chemicals were banned by the Montreal Protocol in the 1980s, Wargan said year-to-year variations are expected to influence the size of the ozone holes in the coming decades.
The planet and Antarctica are still warming
Scientists stressed that the record cold over the South Pole in no way refutes or lessens the seriousness of global warming. Antarctica is notorious for its wild swings in weather and climate, which can run counter to global trends.
Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado, wrote in an email that the Antarctic climate is extremely sensitive to high-altitude winds and Pacific Ocean conditions and prone to rapid change. He pointed out that its sea ice, which was close to a record high at the end of August tanked to “to one of the lowest extents for this time of year that we’ve seen” by the end of September.
To evaluate what’s happening with the climate of Antarctica, one must look beyond a seasonal snapshot, scientists said.
“One cold winter is interesting but doesn’t change the long term trend, which is warming,” Eric Steig, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, wrote in an email.
David Bromwich, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Ohio State University, attributed the cold to increasing “short-term variability” at the South Pole in recent years. “In the long-term average Antarctica is warming,” he wrote in an email.
At the moment, though, the Antarctic cold is beyond numbing.
The temperature at the South Pole at the time of publication of this article on Oct. 1 was minus-67 degrees with a wind chill of minus-101.
See more here: washingtonpost.com
Header image: Lisa Minelli-Endlich
Editor’s note: Publications like the Washington Post just can’t help themselves. They accurately report the coldest Antarctic winter since 1957, then finish by saying ignore the cold, the Antarctic is warming up!
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Joseph Olson
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When Russians drilled a two mile deep ice core at Lake Vostok (east in Russian) they recorded a surface temperature of -89°F, cold enough to freeze atmospheric CO2 into DRY ICE. The liquid pool under that ice was 40°F and included thousands of distinct DNA sequences, including multicellular life forms. This lake gets NO SUNSHINE, and gets all its warmth and nutrition from Volcanic Nuclear Fission ~ Earth’s OTHER variable climate change factor.
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Koen Vogel
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I wish we could have some consistency in the conclusions of the plethora of weather vs climate stories. As a previous poster pointed out: climate is averaged weather. Why point out a “record hot summer” (weather) then provide a (tenuous) interpretation that a record cold (weather) is the result of a fairly common Antarctic polar vortex (weather), then reinforce/counterbalance the argument with maximum ice extent in August (weather) that went to “one of the lowest ever seen” (weather, if you take the “lowest temperature ever seen” to be weather). But in the end, promote the conclusion that the planet and Antarctica are still warming (climate). Seems to me a story where the author feels compelled to dismiss the author’s own confirmation bias: any weather evidence that invalidates the author’s climate beliefs must be dismissed. Or am I overly psychoanalytical? I would think the “Scientists” that stress that the record cold over the South Pole in NO WAY (emphasis mine) refutes or lessens the seriousness of global warming need to revisit their scientific mandate: by dismissing the (single, weather) data point as unimportant you are climatesplaining away data that is certainly interesting and might be important. Any new data contrary to a scientific theory should be tested using a null hypothesis: this data does not change my scientific theory. If the null hypothesis cannot be rejected, then nothing changes. This rejection of the null hypothesis is not something which should be done via climatesplaining. It involves a (complicated, difficult) analysis of the probability of a 60+ year low temperature given that the Earth’s (and apparently Antarctica’s) temperature has risen over the same period. Some of the oceans around Antarctica have cooled (IPCC), and may have therefore have influenced the weather to produce a result that is contrary to theory; global warming is mainly a Northern Atlantic ocean event. The analysis whereby a null hypothesis is rejected is worthwhile: you will learn something.
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MattH
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Hi Koen.
The “null hypothesis’ is not something I have encountered before.
Let data speak for itself without fear or favour.
Thank you.
Matt
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Herb Rose
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Hi Koen,
Climate is a result of the energy coming to the Earth from the sun and the position of the Earth, not the weather. The incoming energy is greatest in the tropics and then flows towards the poles. This is what creates the weather. When there is less energy the polar flow weakens and the jet streams wander producing variable weather.
The GHGT and global warming are hypothesis or speculation and have no basis in science. They try to sound scientificish in order to fool the ignorant but every thing about them is based on bad science (flat Earth, CO2 reflecting heat, violation of the laws if thermodynamics). We are now entering a grand solar minimum where the sun will produce less UV radiation. This will result in less warming of the atmosphere and cooling, just as it occurred the last time during the little ice age. For at least the next 50 years people will wish that they could effect the climate and make it warmer.
Herb
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