The thirty third annual State of the Climate report, a world evaluation on world local weather, got here out on September 6, 2023. The College of Colorado Boulder explained in a press release what the report stated concerning the planet’s coldest and driest continent: Antarctica. In 2022, Antarctica skilled each an unprecedented heatwave and excessive precipitation. As Rajashree Tri Datta of CU Boulder, a contributor to the report, stated:
My hope is that the general public begins to see each the fragility and complexity of those polar areas.
Antarctica and the remainder of Earth
Antarctica might look like an remoted island on the finish of the Earth, however modifications right here may have main impacts on the remainder of the world. As a matter of reality, the icy continent shops 70% of all contemporary water on the planet. Datta stated:
Many of the planet’s contemporary water is held on the ice sheet of Antarctica. What occurs there finally ends up affecting coasts internationally, and what impacts coasts internationally impacts all the pieces from agriculture to migration patterns.
Heatwaves in Antarctica
Heatwaves can strike usually frigid locations like Antarctica, too. Right here’s what the State of the Local weather report said about 2022:
It was the second-warmest yr on file for all 5 of the long-term staffed climate stations on the Antarctic Peninsula. In East Antarctica, a heatwave occasion led to a brand new all-time record-high temperature of -9.4 C [15.08 F] on March 18 at Dome C. [That’s 44 C or 79 F above the March average.] This was adopted by the collapse of the critically unstable Conger Ice Shelf. Greater than 100 day by day low sea-ice extent and sea-ice space data had been set in 2022, together with two new all-time annual file lows in web sea-ice extent and space in February.
As UC Boulder famous of their press launch, March is often the transition month between summer season and winter, when temperatures drop quickly. Datta thinks the south polar heatwave will ring a bell with individuals who have additionally skilled heatwaves. She stated:
They know what a heatwave means. They expertise it of their day by day lives, and it’s impacting Antarctica as properly, though in very alternative ways.
Increased snowfall protects towards sea degree rise
The wild climate in Antarctica final yr additionally included unprecedented snowfall in East Antarctica in March. Notably, the snowfall in March 2022 was triple the common for the month in comparison with the March common between 1991 and 2020. Subsequently, the East Antarctic ice sheet had its highest quantity of snow and ice within the 40 years for the reason that observational information grew to become out there. Datta defined why it is a constructive for planet Earth:
The robust precipitation this yr could be very attention-grabbing, as a result of it offsets the ice loss across the margins of Antarctica. The snowfall this yr really protected the world towards sea degree rise.
Atmospheric rivers in charge
The wrongdoer behind the heatwave and file precipitation was a climate sample known as an atmospheric river. If that sounds acquainted, that’s as a result of California was inundated with precipitation in early 2023 because of atmospheric rivers. In Antarctica in 2022, storms sucked moisture from decrease latitudes and introduced heat air and heavy precipitation to the southernmost continent.
Precipitation in Antarctica often falls as snow. However Datta defined that atmospheric rivers may convey extra warmth than they did in 2022. An atmospheric river with extra warmth may contribute to extra floor soften or convey rain. And that, in flip, would drive up sea ranges, affecting billions of individuals world wide. Datta stated that Greenland, which is far hotter than Antarctica, is already feeling many of those impacts.
Datta summed up:
The report provides items to the bigger puzzle of how local weather change can affect Antarctica. Many of those dramatic occasions in 2022, and additional analysis into their causes and results, can arm us with a greater understanding of our potential future.
Backside line: Antarctica skilled wild climate in 2022, from heatwaves to a rise of snow and ice on its japanese facet, due to atmospheric rivers.
Source: State of the Climate Report 2022
Source: Antarctica and the Southern Ocean
Via University of Colorado Boulder
