Antarctica Melting Down? Climate Change Sets Highest Temperature in Continent Ever

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A record breaking 63.5F temperature was recorded in Antarctica on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 reports the weather bloggers at Weather Underground. The reading was recorded at the northern tip of Antarctic Peninsula, Argentina's Esperanza Base, reports The Washington Post.

Argentina's Esperanza Base might not be considered as a part of Antarctica as far as the weather records are concerned, said Weather Underground historian Christopher Burt. He clarified that Tuesday's report is not official yet as the World Meteorological Organization would have to approve the reading after careful validation and verification if the region is a part of Antarctica, The Washington Post noted. 

Meanwhile, ice shelves that form a fringe along the coastline of the continents are reported to be melting by the glaciologists. The ice shelves, which have served as doorstops for the entire Antarctic ice sheet system for millions of years, are losing volume rapidly for the past 18 years. The data was reported on March 27, 2015 in the journal "Science" by the researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego, according to another The Washington Post report.

"While it is fair to say that we're seeing the ice shelves responding to climate change, we don't believe there is enough evidence to directly relate recent ice shelf losses specifically to changes in global temperature," Helen Amanda Fricker, co-author of the study, told Reuters.

According to The Washington Post, Fricker also explained that the melting ice shelves are not responsible for the rise of global sea level unlike grounded glacial ice does, as the ice shelves are already floating on the water.

"This is just like your glass of gin and tonic. When the ice cubes melt, the level of liquid in the glass does not rise," lead author of the study, Fernando Paolo, told Reuters.

Paolo added that while the melting ice shelves don't play any role in the increasing global sea level, there are chances that they affect the glacial ice that they are supporting. The ice shelves separate the glaciers from the warm ocean water, deterioration of the ice shelves might result in increased ice discharge into the ocean.