Heatwaves and snow: what's really happening to the Antarctic climate?

Last month, Antarctica experienced a record-breaking heatwave and unusually high amounts of snowfall in some places, leaving scientists puzzled. In this special episode of Climate Now, we explore the latest data from the frozen continent and explore how this extreme environment is changing as the planet warms.

The latest Copernicus data shows the Antarctic sea ice extent was 26 percent below average last month - the 2nd lowest on record.

The Ross and Amundsen seas, highlighted in the map below, were particularly low on sea ice.

In terms of temperature anomalies, East Antarctica experienced a kind of heatwave last month. A mass of warmer air swept across the continent, pushing temperatures at the Concordia research station from the usual minus 55 degrees Celsius to a new all-time high for the station of minus 11.5 degrees.

Temperatures in Antarctica can vary a great deal, but Jonathan Wille, Polar Climatologist at the Université Grenoble Alpes says this time was different.

"It was sort of a new show for the climate in Antarctica that has left quite a few of us scratching our heads and sort of making us reassess what we thought was possible for the Antarctic climate," he told Euronews.

"In terms of what we know for the Antarctic climate this is totally unprecedented. Our records, of course, for Antarctica go back not as long as the rest of the civilised world, but this is an event on a par with what we saw with the heatwave in the Pacific Northwest in June of 2021 - an event that kind of redefines what we thought was possible for the climate system."

Willie studies the effect which led to the heatwave. He explains: "On March 15th, we had what is called an atmospheric river transport a large amount of heat and moisture from the