South Pole registers coldest winter on record
Image credit: Scot Jackson, NSF
A weather station at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station registered record cold winter temperatures this season (April – September), averaging at -61.1 °C (-77.9 °F) and breaking the previous record set in 1976 at -60.6 °C (-77 °F). Weather records date back to 1957.
The average temperature at the station was 2.5 °C (4.5 °F) colder than the most recent 30-year average.1
According to University of Wisconsin researcher Matthew Lazzara, an expert on observing the meteorology and climate of Antarctica, it was around -73.3 °C (-100 °F) at the station on numerous occasions this winter.2
On September 30, the temperature at Russia’s Vostok Station dropped to -79.3 °C (-110.9 °C), just short of the world record for the lowest temperature in October, which is -80 °C (-112 °F). The all-time world record is -89.2 °C (-128.6 °F), registered at Vostok Station on July 21, 1983.3
The extreme cold the region experienced this year pushed Antarctica's sea ice levels to their 5th highest level on record.
Additionally, according to a new paper by Zhu et al., a cooling trend dominates East Antarctica and West Antarctica, while a warming trend exists in the Antarctic Peninsula except during austral summer.4, 5
References:
1 South Pole posts most severe cold season on record, a surprise in a warming world – Capital Weather Gang
2 South Pole Sees Record Cold Winter, Smashing 1976 Record …WaPo Admits “Chill Was Exceptional” – NoTricksZone
3 Scott Duncan – Twitter
4 An Assessment of ERA5 Reanalysis for Antarctic Near-Surface Air Temperature – MDPI – Open Access
5 Scientists Find “Surprising” And “Statistically Significant” Cooling Trend Over Entire Continental Antarctica – NoTricksZone
Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
Published in the last 24 hours
- In September 1859, a solar storm lit up the night sky so brightly that gold miners in the Rocky Mountains woke up after midnight and started cooking breakfast, convinced the aurora glowing over their camp was the sunrise Epicenter
- A patch of warm Pacific water that could become the strongest El Niño in more than 70 years sits thousands of miles from any American town, yet it is already the main reason NOAA expects a wetter winter across the South and a milder one across the North
- A 19-year-old Nebraska teacher reportedly tied her pupils together with twine and led them to safety through a blizzard in January 1888 Epicenter
- NASA built the Opportunity rover to last 90 days on Mars, and Martian winds helped keep it alive for nearly 15 years by blowing dust off its solar panels, until a planet-wide dust storm in 2018 blocked sunlight and silenced the rover Epicenter
Al Gore and his minions said my children would not know what snow is by 2020. He said the ocean levels would rise and inundate coastal cities. Many awards and carbon points flying in private jets later; he divorced, sold a television company, bought a humungous mansion on the beach, likes hassling masseuses, and hides as this horse chit is exposed. A greedy, sneaky reprobate that no amount of ill gotten gain will cover the stench of absolute corruption. Maunder minimum, anyone?
The South Pole registered its coldest temperature ever, because of global warming. The so-called climate scientists will come up with new notion that links this record temperature to the dogma of global warming. And. if you do not believe me, then ask Al Gore, or Mr. Al Gore already made enough money and he does not care anymore? Hahahahahaha….In the end of the day, we must not blame Al Gore for becoming a leader of climate science. If the Sun is misunderstood then there is no way that current climate changes can be explained based on real science