This is the second significant heat wave Antarctica has endured in the last two years. That unprecedented heat wave was made worse by climate change, according to a 2023 study published in Geophysical Research Letters. Climate change contributed 3.6 degrees of warming to the heat wave and could worsen similar heat waves by 9 to 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, the study found. Climate Change Institute, University of Maine Climate Change Institute, University of Maine Slide left to see temperatures observed during this heat wave and right to see what normal temperatures should be. But other research in the last few years has demonstrated that melting in East Antarctica, where this heat wave is happening, is becoming equally troubling.

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Persons: David Mikolajczyk, Mikolajczyk, ” Thomas Bracegirdle, University of Maine Bracegirdle, ” Bracegirdle, it’s, Ted Scambos, Bracegirdle, Amy Butler, Butler, ” Organizations: CNN, East Antarctica –, Antarctic Meteorological Research, Data Center, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Antarctic, Reds, Institute, University of Maine, Research, University of Colorado, Northern Hemisphere, Southern, NOAA’s Chemical Sciences, Change Institute, East Antarctica, National Academy of Sciences, “ Locations: Antarctica, East Antarctica, Bismarck, North Dakota, University of Colorado Boulder, Northern, East, Scambos, West Antarctica