Record winter temperatures in Antarctic raise fears over speed of climate breakdown

Records aren’t ‘just’ being broken, they are being destroyed, annihilated, my studies on non-linearity in the climate system continue to predictably show acceleration. The key issue with our predicament, is that it is accelerating.


“Temperatures in the Antarctic climbed above 15C this month, shattering the previous winter heat record for the usually frozen region and raising concerns about the speed of climate breakdown.” Minor detail, it’s supposed to be winter in the Southern Hemisphere, the seasonal sea ice is supposed to be growing, not declining.

“The new winter peak temperature was logged by the Argentinian Esperanza base on the Trinity peninsula on 6 June amid a protracted heatwave, when the maximum daily temperature exceeded zero degrees for three consecutive weeks.”

“Scientists said the high of 15.4C broke the previous record set at the same station in 1998 by 2C. “This is absolutely crazy,” said Raúl Cordero, an Ecuadorian climate professor at the University of Groningen. “It is also about 20C above normal for this time of the year. That is a huge anomaly.”

It’s warmer in Antarctica than in the Hauraki Gulf in Aotearoa NZ, the difference from the last record screams non-linearity.

Record winter temperatures in Antarctic raise fears over speed of climate breakdown

Bellingshausen Sea slushy! Imagine what it will look like at the end of this year as the summer kicks in and the real consequences of the El Niño manifest. 2026 Super El Niño could surpass the 1877 record


“A colossal chunk of sea ice roughly the size of Texas is missing from the west coast of Antarctica, and scientists fear it might never form again.”

“Antarctica is currently in winter, which runs from March to October on the southernmost continent. During the winter months, floating sea ice surrounding the continent typically grows, driving currents that regulate Earth’s climate. But this year, there’s a notable ice gap over the Bellingshausen Sea, on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula.”

Satellite observations have revealed that around 250,000 square miles (650,000 square kilometers) of sea ice hasn’t formed yet, compared with the average amount of sea ice between 1991 and 2020, The Guardian reported last week. For comparison, the ice gap covers an area slightly larger than France or nearly the size of Texas. A Texas-size chunk of winter sea ice is missing from Antarctica — and it’s probably not coming back


I have noticed a number of articles attributing this melt to the nascent El Niño, I contest that assumption.
Here’s one example below:

“The coldest place on Earth is also feeling the effects of the hot weather triggered by El Niño. Scientists recorded temperatures 20 degrees Celsius above normal in early June on the Trinity Peninsula in Antarctica. This shows that a heatwave has gripped the frozen continent.”
NOAA have only just accepted that we are now in an El Niño phase, the consequences we witness unfolding are the result of ongoing emissions and the implications of six dozen feedback loops we have triggered, not the El Niño, those consequences are barreling towards us like a runaway freight train.
Antarctica feels the heat in June as temperature soars 20 degrees Celsius above normal

What are the consequences of losing a chunk of ice the size of Texas?

1) The loss of latent heat from such a huge piece of the cryosphere.
2) The loss of Albedo or reflectivity means that more solar radiation is absorbed by the oceans, accelerating the melt.
3) The loss of habitat on the ice for seals and penguins, the loss of habitat under the ice for algae, a keystone species in the marine food web.
4) The meltwater from these losses is slowing down the ocean currents.

“Losing the remaining Arctic sea ice and its ability to reflect incoming solar energy back to space would be equivalent to adding one trillion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere, on top of the 2.4 trillion tons emitted since the Industrial Age, according to current and former researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.”

“At current rates, this roughly equates to 25 years of global CO2 emissions.”

Cascading Consequences of the Loss of Arctic Sea Ice

“NASA CERES satellites measure how much sunlight Earth absorbs and how much heat is radiated back to space.”

“The difference is heat accumulation, which has more than tripled!” Via Leon Simons @ Bluesky


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About Kevin Hester

I'm an anti-imperialist, environmental activist and blue ocean sailor, who is passionate about the earth and all it's inhabitants without favour. Brace for imminent impact as we bare witness to the non-linear unraveling of the biosphere and habitability disappearing for most if not all complex life on the only habitable planet we know of. To quote President Niinistö in North Russia: ‘If We Lose the Arctic, We Lose the World’. Folks we have lost the Arctic.