Much of the country, right now, is dealing with a chilly March. It’s in the 30s and 40s across much of the country today. And you’d think that Antarctica would be colder, always but, it turns out, much of the country weatherwise now is worse off coldwise than Antarctica was in 2015. But that’s about the only good news for Antarctica hitting a record high temperature.
Reuters is reporting that Antarctica hit a record high in 2015 with a temperature of 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The worrying finding was discovered by the UN’s weather organization as it was collecting data to set benchmarks for climate change in the region. The good news is that the coast of Antarctica is usually much warmer than the interior, which is good since if Antarctica fully melts, sea levels will rise over 200 feet. The bad news is that the average temperature on the coast this time of year is nearly thirty degrees cooler than the record.
Right now, it’s 11 degrees at McMurdo Station, and hopefully that temperature sticks. After all, we’ve only got one planet, and no matter how fast Elon Musk works, there can’t be a seat on the spaceship to Mars for all of us.
(Via Reuters)