Antarctic Climate & Antarctic Weather

Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, driest continent on the planet. The weather, strong winds and brutal storms have been synonymous with Antarctic since its discovery and continue to be a major challenge for modern explorers.

Most of the early diary's and tales of exploration of Antarctica are filled with stories of how the weather was man's biggest enemy on the continent. Nature's power is seldom seen as ferocious as it is in Antarctica, making this one of the most inhospitable places on earth.

Why is Antarctic's weather so brutal

Antarctica's climate is as inhospitable as it is due to several factors, mainly to do with:

• Antarctica is colder than the Arctic even though during the course of the year it receives almost the same amount of sunlight. In fact, Antarctica receives a little more solar energy than the Arctic because the Earth is closest to the sun in December when Antarctica has 24 hours of sunlight .But the perpetual ice sheet covering the majority of the continent is highly reflective and doesn't absorb warmth. Attenuation of solar radiation energy is greatest at high latitudes where the path through the atmosphere is longest. Also, solar energy reaching the surface at high latitude is spread over a larger area because the surface is at a greater angle to the incoming radiation. Therefore the earth's surface at the poles is a heat sink when compared with that at the tropics. The poles simply lose more energy than they receive - they have a negative radiation balance. The net radiation is the balance between incoming energy absorbed by a surface and outgoing radiation that's emitted from the surface.
• It is surrounded by oceans.
• It is the windiest continent with the highest wind speed measured at d'Urville (327 km/h).
• It is extremely high in altitude. Antarctica is the highest continent on the planet with an average altitude of 2500m.
• It is covered almost entirely by ice and snow. Antarctica has >90% of the planets' ice, with ice over 4700m thick in some places.
• It is extremely dry (< 5cm precipitation per year on average).

Records

• Coldest Temperature: -89C / -129F Vostok (Coldest Temperature ever recorded on the planet.)

Current Weather Conditions

Station Name	Temperature / Local Time
Neumayer
Halley
Vostok
Amundsen-Scott
McMurdo

Antarctic Climate

Antarctic has a few main climatic areas, each similar, yet different enough due to its surroundings and geographical location and make up.

Antarictic Peninsula
Since the Antarctic Peninsula is the most northern part of Antarctica, extending to within 1000km of South America, it has the most moderate climate of the three regions. Some of the Antarctic Islands near the Antarctic Peninsula for example are warm enough to experience rain during the summer as opposed to snow all year round. Another influence of the proximity to South America is strong sea currents and storms. This is because the Southern Ocean is forced through the 1000km (Drake Passage) stretch between the Peninsula and South America, on its way around Antarctica.
A benefit of this region having a more moderate climate is, the fact that the Peninsula also have the most variety of Antarctic Animals (penguins, seals, whales, fish, krill etc), plants (grasses, lichen, mosses etc) and other life forms.

Antarctic Continental Coastal regions
The Climate on the continental coastal regions is predominated by high precipitation and strong storms. Due to the proximity of the sea, most of the snow that falls in Antarctica falls within 200km of the coast, hence this region experiences the highest accumulation of snow. Storms are typically in the form of low pressure cyclones, which travel from south from mid latitudes toward the pole (and west to east under influence of the earths centrafugal force). These passing cyclones bring with them extremely high winds which are carrying snow and ice at speeds that can exceed 300km per hour (e.g. 375km/h at the French station on the coast). Storms can last for several days and are frequent enough to only give a day or two between storms in which to move about or perform experiments.

Antarictic Interior
The interior of Antarctic is typically higher, drier and colder. In contrast to the previous two regions, the interior does not benefit from the proximity of a liquid ocean, but similarly does not have type of cyclonig storms experienced in the Peninsula or other coastal regions. Due to the lack of humidity, the interior is very much colder. It typically also receives less sun light (due to the proximity to the earths axis), and experiences much more severe differences in weather between summer and winter.

Antarctic Weather Terms and Phenomenon

Antarctic Circumpolar Trough
The Antarctic Circumpolar Trough is a zone (between 60°S and 65°S) of low pressure that exhibits variable winds moving from west to east.

Antarctic Circumpolar Current
An ocean surface current of the Southern Ocean. This current is one of the strongest on the planet, driven by the strong winds and the lack of land masses to offer resistance to its movement around Antarctica.

Antarctic Convergence (Polar Front)
An oceanographic boundary where the colder, saltier Antarctic surface waters sink beneath the surrounding more northerly warmer, less salty Subantarctic sea water.