Satellite imagery shows the collapse of the Conger ice shelf from February 22 – March 21, 2022. A heat wave in Antarctica earlier this month was so extreme that it may be the largest temperature increase above normal ever recorded, according to Robert Rohde, lead scientist at the nonprofit Berkeley Earth, who analyzed global records. The temperature at Concordia research station, a European outpost in East Antarctica, measured almost 70° Fahrenheit (38.5° Celsius) hotter than normal on March 18, reaching a high of 11°F. (As warm as that is for the region, it’s still below freezing.) Though this isn’t a category weather services track, Rohde said it may be the biggest margin ever. Temperature record-keeping on Antarctica by satellite goes back only to the early 1980s—not a huge amount of time, with sparse data, compared with warmer and more populous regions to the north. This short record, combined with […]