The lowest temperature on Earth in 14 years was recorded in Antarctica
The Concordia research station in Antarctica recorded the lowest temperature on Earth since 2012—minus 84.1 degrees Celsius. This occurred amid the harshest winter in the Southern Hemisphere in recent years.
While Europe is suffering from a prolonged heat wave, Antarctica is experiencing a period of extremely low temperatures, which has caught the attention of scientists.
The cold snap, a record for recent years, was recorded on July 18 at a high-altitude station located deep within the Antarctic continent, where the polar night is currently underway.
According to scientists, the temperature around the station dropped to -84.1 °C twice—at 6:25 and 6:34 a.m. local time. The publication notes that such extreme cold is not unprecedented for Concordia, as temperatures there regularly drop below -80 °C in the winter. However, the reading recorded on July 18 was the lowest on the entire planet since 2012.
As Live Science notes, the sudden cold snap occurred amid abnormal heat waves in many countries around the world. This summer, North America and Europe have been suffering from heat waves, and large-scale wildfires have broken out in a number of countries. Despite this, extreme cold in a single region does not contradict the trend of global warming, scientists say.
Gabriele Carugati, head of the Italian National Antarctic Research Program, which operates the “Concordia” station, explained that climate change refers to long-term processes, which does not rule out short-term record cold spells. He noted that local temperature records in Antarctica in no way contradict the overall picture of warming.
According to Live Science, Concordia is considered one of the most isolated research stations in the world. It is located at an altitude of over 3,200 meters above sea level and more than a thousand kilometers from the coast. Airplanes cannot reach it in winter, and the nearest other station is located about 600 kilometers away. Because of these harsh conditions, researchers working at Concordia are even called “ice astronauts,” and their physical and psychological well-being is monitored by specialists from the European Space Agency.
According to Live Science, the station’s all-time low temperature was recorded in 2010, when the mercury dropped to -84.7 °C. Meanwhile, the lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was measured in July 1983 at the Soviet Vostok Station: -89.2 °C.
