Temperatures 70 degrees above normal in eastern Antarctica have baffled scientists, who say that the “unprecedented heat wave” has already changed the way experts think about the Antarctic climate system.
“‘It is impossible,’ we would have said until two days ago,” Antarctic climatology expert Stefano Di Battista wrote on Twitter Friday. “From today (March 18) the Antarctic climatology has been rewritten.”
Jonathan Wille, a researcher studying polar meteorology at Universite Grenoble Alpes in France, agreed.
