Antarctica has had its highest recorded temperature of 18.3℃, beating 2015’s record of 17.5℃. The Antarctic Peninsula, where this week’s reading was taken at the Argentine research base Esperanza, is among the world’s fastest warming regions, rising 3℃ over the past 50 years. Some 87% of the glaciers along its west coast are retreating rapidly. Professor James Renwick, a climate scientist at Victoria University, said, “The reading is a sign of the warming that has been happening there much faster than the global average.”
Fellow expert Prof Nerilie Abram, who has carried out research at the peninsula’s northern tip, said, “It’s an area that’s warming very quickly, which is surely worrying many people.” The reading beats the previous March 2015 record on the earth's southern continent by 0.8℃, according to the Argentine station Esperanza, which collected the data.
Some 87% of the glaciers along its west coast have shown an "accelerated retreat" in the past 12 years, it added. Prof Renwick said the WMO committee would be likely to approve the new record. "The reading is impressive as it's only five years since the previous record was set and this is almost one degree centigrade higher,” he added.
Esperanza, located near the northern tip of the Peninsula easily to sense the change of the temperature, has been collecting data since 1961 for its special position. The reading breaks the 2015 record for the Antarctic continent, defined as the main continental land and adjoining islands by the WMO. The record for the Antarctic region, defined as all land and ice south of 60 degrees latitude is 19.8℃ recorded on Signy Island in January 1982, the WMO said.
本时文内容由奇速英语国际教育研究院原创编写,未经书面授权,禁止复制和任何商业用途,版权所有,侵权必究!(作者投稿及时文阅读定制请联系微信:18980471698)