New Record High Temperature At South Pole

New submitter Titus Andronicus writes "The South Pole experienced its highest-ever recorded temperature of -12.3C (+9.9F) on December 25, 2011, according to preliminary reporting from the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center at the University of Wisconsin."

Comments

Weather, not climate

[MacDork]

Just like snow on Copenhagen is weather, not climate, right?

Re:Weather, not climate

[Tokolosh]

It used to be that smoking was the leading single cause of statistics. But now the climate is gaining.

Re:Weather, not climate

[Shakrai]

Having grown up in Scandinavia without any air conditioners or even fans, and moving to the US as an adult

One of the statistics that I find horrifying is that nearly fifteen thousand people died in France alone during the 2003 heatwave. The death toll was attributed to the widespread lack of air conditioning in that country. A First World country wherein thousands of people die simply because it was hot outside? What's wrong with this picture?

And what is it with Europeans and turning the A/C off anyway? Both times I've visited Europe I paid extra for the privilege of having A/C in my hotel room. Both times the hotel staff let themselves into my room and turned the A/C off whenever I left the room. This annoyed the hell out of me, particularly given the fact that the A/C was woefully undersized for the square footage of my room and the only way to make it halfway decent was to leave the unit running all the time. In the United States A/C is a standard feature even in budget motels.

Nearby even higher than that

[gedankenhoren]

see http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/blog/2011/12/29/update-on-record-high-temperatures-at-south-pole-and-aws-sites/

"Here is an update on the South Pole and nearby Nico and Henry Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) record high temperatures recorded on 25 December 2011:
-- The prior record high temperature at South Pole was recorded on 27 December 1978, not on 12 December 1978, as misquoted in some sources.
-- Preliminary assessment of  the record high at Nico AWS was -8.2C or 17.2F on 25 December 2011.  This breaks the previous known record of -13.9C or 7F recorded on 4 January 2010.
-- Preliminary assessment of the record high at Henry AWS was -8.9C or 16F on 25 December 2011. This break the previous known record of -14.5C or 5.9F on 5 January 2010."

Re:naysayers

[ubrgeek]

Hope they can swim :)

I all seriousness, I understand the folks who don't believe in global warming. I don't understand how they reach their conclusions, but what I guess I can't wrap my head around is how staunch they seem to be that global warming is absolutely not possible. It seems like they're vehemently trying to prove a negative instead of considering that even if all of the components of global warming aren't valid, there are parts that are worth considering as being problems that need to be resolved.

Disc golf

[uigrad_2000]

Time to play some disc golf.

Detail records since 1950

[frith01]

previous temp high was in Dec 1978, detail records have been kept since mid 1950's.

approximate annual average temperature records through ice cores date back about 800,000 years.

Dec 27, 1978 -13.6 C +7.5 F

[rubycodez]

This is indeed weather, it's come close to that before (in the "global cooling" period of the 1970s) Dec 27, 1978 the high was -13.6 C +7.5 F.

Re:Dec 27, 1978 -13.6 C +7.5 F

[ClioCJS]

Actually in the 1970s there was not a big discussion about global cooling. It was something a couple journalists sensationally mentioned in a couple articles. Not scientists. Look it up on snopes.

Summer

[unixcorn]

First, it's mid summer there. Second, there is no mention of the previous record so we have nothing to compare this "record" to. I have a friend who works there every year and his comments, from camp, last month was that they were battling storms and cold and hadn't been able to get too much work done. Finally, we have only been keeping track of temperatures there since 1956 so it's hardly worth getting into a tizzy over 60 years worth of record data.

Re:Summer

[Deep Penguin]

The previous record is a matter of record: +7.5F in December, 1978. A few summers ago, we had a very warm week and we hit +7.0F in the middle of several days of above-zero temps. While I'm not a Global Warming denier by any means, the specific cause of these record and near-record temps is weather - specifically large masses of warm(er) air coming in from the coast.

Normally, the weather at Pole is so predictable it follows a simple pie chart hanging up in the Meteorology office - the chart divides the wind direction into dominant categories such that you can look at the reading from the wind vanes and make a pretty good prediction of the present and impending weather (mostly, winds out of Grid North bring in clearer and drier air; winds out of Grid West are warmer and moister; and winds out of Grid South are infrequent and bring unsettled conditions). This is in part because most of the time, the air movement is katabatic, meaning it's rolling downhill, and the terrain around Pole favors winds from Grid North. While thermally-induced winds are not unknown, they aren't the dominant force. It takes a lot of energy to disrupt the usual patterns; that's part of what "Global Warming" means - the entire atmosphere has more (thermal) energy, so there's more available force to create disruptions on a global scale.

Re:naysayers

[MrHanky]

Oh, it's like this: global warming cause taxes, taxes are wrong and therefore global warming is wrong. QED.

Re:as an American...

[GrumblyStuff]

Oh man! Thank GOD you beat that addiction. Fan dependence and ODing is a serious problem! Just ask any South Korean!

Europe less extreme than US

[Roger W Moore]

A First World country wherein thousands of people die simply because it was hot outside? What's wrong with this picture?

Perhaps you should ask the people in the Chicago? The difference is that a lot of Europe rarely (or at least it used to be rarely) gets hot enough to require air conditioning in contrast to parts of the US that trace their population growth to the invention of air conditioning due to the stifling heat (at least that's what Atlanta claimed in some of it tourist literature several years ago).

I would hazard a guess the the main reason for this is that the US is at a lower latitude that much of Europe and lacks the moderating influence of the ocean (no Mediterranean, Rockies block air from Pacific), but I am by no means an expert in such matters. Whatever the cause the US does seem to be, on average, hotter than much of Europe in the summer and colder in the winter. Europe does get hot but not for the prolonged months that the US seems to suffer. This means that not only is air conditioning a lot less common but heat waves occur far less frequently and are typically less severe so, when bad ones do happen, there are far more vulnerable people around because their population has not been reduced by frequent heat waves and there is little/no air conditioning available to help.....of course this does not explain the deaths in Chicago but I'll let you figure out why they happened.