Scientists confirm Earth's greatest heatwave occurred in Antarctica

A study published in August 2023 presented the temperature fluctuations of an unprecedented heat wave that hit Antarctica in 2022 that saw researchers strip down to their shorts to demonstrate the scale of the climate change, which was 21°C above average for the frigid continent.

As reported by the Washington Post, the extreme heat wave brought temperatures in eastern Antarctica to -15°C, which was a far cry from its average -53°C. In Antarctica, ice shelves are melting at a faster rate as the globe grows steadily warmer, with the most severe heat wave to ever occur on Earth having happened in eastern Antarctica.

The temperature fluctuation resulted from a "highly anomalous large-scale circulation pattern that advected an Australian airmass to East Antarctica in 4 days and produced record atmospheric heat fluxes".

Another factor that made this recording so shocking is that it occurred during a time of year when Antarctica's sunlight is sparse. Due to changing winds around Antarctica, warm air traveled from southern Australia to eastern Antarctica, with the direction change in winds also brought moisture, snow, and rain, causing melting to occur on the eastern coast ice sheet.

According to AccuWeather senior meteorologist Jason Nicholls who talked to Newsweek, given the forecast that Australia will have drier, warmer conditions as its summer approaches—and given the reduction in sea ice around Antarctica—another heat wave occurrence is possible.

"Usually when you get an air mass coming off Australia, it is modified by cooling waters as it nears Antarctica", Nicholls clarified. "With the waters being warmer than normal, and the sea ice is low around Antarctica, there's a little less cooling coming from underneath".

The study notes, that while climate change didn't cause the heat wave, it did worsen the heat wave by about 15.7°C, a rate that could triple by the end of the 21st century.