The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of Antarctica. (File)
Santiago:
2020 is the hottest year on the Antarctic Peninsula in the past three decades, a study from the University of Santiago de Chile revealed on Friday.
Between January and August, temperatures reached between 2 and 3 degrees Celsius (35.6 and 37.4 degrees Fahrenheit) on the peninsula, which is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctica, according to researchers at the base of Frei of the Chilean Air Force on King George Island.
These temperatures are “above 2 degrees Celsius above typical values,” climatologist Raul Cordero said in a statement released by the Chilean Institute of Antarctica (INACH).
“In the far north of the Antarctic Peninsula, the average maximum temperature so far this year has been above 0 degrees. This had not happened for 31 years,” Cordero added.
He called this fact “alarming” because it could indicate that the rapid rate of ocean warming observed in the region at the end of the 20th century is resuming.
The high winter temperatures in the southern hemisphere, however, contrast with those recorded between August and September, which reached -16.8 degrees Celsius, the lowest since 1970.
The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of Antarctica, home to scientific and military bases from several countries, including Argentina, Chile and Great Britain.
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