“All of NSF’s US Antarctic Program (USAP) participants are given extreme cold weather gear and are trained in how to recognize the dangers of extreme cold.” “Everyone adapts to the cold differently, and today’s gear makes it much safer than in the days when Shackleton and the other explorers had little specialized gear they had only wool socks and leather shoes to protect their feet!” a NSF spokesperson said. However, the polar environments are still challenging. The National Science Foundation, which runs the US Antarctic program, points out the winter temperatures have had minimal impact in science support from the South Pole, since most of the deep fieldwork occurs in the austral summer.
The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, which sits at an elevation of 2,835 meters (9,300 feet), has an average monthly temperature in the austral summer of -28☌ (-18☏). The ozone hole appears to have peaked as of this post, with initial measurements reporting that it is in the upper quartile (top 25 percent) of ozone reduction events since 1979.”Įven in the austral summer months of November through February, it never really gets “warm” at the South Pole. “A strong upper-atmosphere polar vortex was observed as well, leading to a significant ozone hole. “The unusual cold was attributed to two extended periods of stronger-than-average encircling winds around the continent, which tend to isolate the ice sheet from warmer conditions,” the NSIDC explained. Here is an example of the large day-to-day temperature changes (weather) around the world: - Zack Labe February 10, 2021 However, record highs will increasingly outpace the cold. “This is the second-coldest winter (June-July-August months) on record, behind only 2004 in the 60-year weather record at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station,” the NSIDC said.Įven in a warming world (climate change), there are areas of below average temperatures and record cold.
Here, the sun sets for the last time around the spring equinox, and does not rise again until near the autumn equinox six months later.įor the entire Antarctic continent, the winter of 2021 was the second-coldest on record, with the “temperature for June, July, and August 3.4 degrees Celsius (6.1 degrees Fahrenheit) lower than the 1981 to 2010 average at -62.9 degrees Celsius (-81.2 degrees Fahrenheit),” according to a new report from the NSIDC. The last six months is also the darkest period at the South Pole, which is where the name polar darkness (also called polar night) comes from. “For the polar darkness period, from April through September, the average temperature was -60.9 degrees Celsius (-77.6 degrees Fahrenheit), a record for those months,” the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said. In a year of extreme heat, Antarctica’s last six months were the coldest on record.
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