Record high temperatures reportedly measured in Antarctica will take months to verify, the UN weather agency has said.
A spokesman for the World Meteorological Organisation said the measurements made by researchers from Argentina and Brazil earlier this month have to undergo a formal process to ensure that they meet international standards.
“A formal decision on whether or not this is a record is likely to be several months away,” said Jonathan Fowler, the WMO spokesman.
READ MORE: Edinburgh adventurer completes Antarctic expedition
Scientists at an Argentine research base measured a temperature of 18.3C (nearly 65F) on February 6 on a peninsula that juts out from Antarctica toward the southern tip of South America.
An aerial view taken off James Ross Island in the Weddell Sea, in the Antarctic (Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace/PA)
Last week, researchers from Brazil claimed to have measured temperatures above 20C on an island off the peninsula.
Mr Fowler said both measurements would need to be transmitted to Professor Randall Cerveny, a researcher at Arizona State University who examines reported temperature records for WMO.
READ MORE: Diving into the coldest place on earth, for the planet
Prof Cerveny then shares the data with a wider group of scientists who “will carefully evaluate the available evidence (including comparisons to surrounding stations) and debate the merits and problems of the observation”, said Mr Fowler.
WMO is aware of reports of new #Antarctic temperature record of 20.75°C on Seymour Island. We first need to analyse the station metadata (location and type of equipment, measurement practices etc) before we can verify this. https://t.co/zJFUNi9Teo
— WMO | OMM (@WMO) February 14, 2020
The evaluation normally takes six to nine months, after which Prof Cerveny would “formally either accept or reject the potential extreme”, giving official WMO approval to the new record, he said.
Climate change is causing the Arctic and the Antarctic to warm faster than other parts of the planet.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here