2009 Warmest Year on Record at the South Pole
12.05.2010 - Atmosphere & Space, Antarctic
While the average temperature at the South Pole in 2009 was a frosty -47.9°C, according to meteorologists at Amundsen-Scott Station, 2009 was the warmest year on record at the South Pole since temperature records began to be taken in 1957. The last record high average temperature was recorded in 2002, -50.0°C.
2009 was also the second warmest year on record for the planet in the last 130 years and the warmest for the southern hemisphere, according to an analysis of global surface temperatures by NASA External U.S. government site scientists.
Although the South Pole witnessed a cold snap in April 2010, which instruments recorded at the AWS at Dome Fuji, 2010 has been much warmer than normal so far. Whether any of these trends at the South Pole means anything for climate change still must be determined as scientists are still working on a climatological analysis for the South Pole.
