TORONTO — When we think of Antarctica, images of ice, blowing snow and penguins might come to mind. But a day in shorts? Not so much.
But it was definitely shorts and T-shirt weather at the Argentine Antarctic base last week.
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According to the World Meteorological Organization, preliminary temperature readings indicate that on March 24 the temperature at Base Esperanza reached a high of 17.5 C. That’s right — on the plus side. This follows another temperature reading of 17.4 C recorded at Base Marambio the day before.
Base Esperanza is located near the northern tip of Antarctica.
If that’s correct, it would be a record high for the continent of Antarctica, which beats the old high of 15 C set on January 5, 1974 at Vanda Station.
But that doesn’t mean we can expect this kind of extreme temperature to continue. It’s still plenty cold in Antarctica. On Tuesday, for example, it was still -65 C at the South Pole Station.
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