Heatwave · East Antarctica
A heatwave on the Antarctic plateau
Concordia, the French-Italian station at Dome C, stands 3,233 metres up on the ice of East Antarctica, more than 1,000 km from the coast. By mid-March the sun is low and the plateau is cooling fast towards winter; normal afternoon highs are near −48 °C. On 18 March 2022 the temperature reached −9.4 °C, the highest it had ever recorded, in any month, and about 38.5 °C above the normal for the day: the largest jump above normal ever recorded at an established weather station. [S1]
15–19 March 2022 · Dome C and the East Antarctic plateau · ERA5
+30°C
ERA5 at Concordia in four days
From −46 °C on 15 March to −15 °C on 18 March, its afternoon highs.
~1,200km²
Conger ice shelf, gone
It broke up in mid-March, as the warm spell arrived; its loss had been long in the making.N1
What happened
In mid-March 2022 a deep low over the Southern Ocean and a strong ridge to its east drew a long plume of warm, moist air from the subtropical Indian Ocean south towards the coast of Wilkes Land. This atmospheric river did not stop at the coast: the ridge steered it up and over the ice, more than 1,000 km inland, onto the plateau.S1
On the plateau the moisture formed clouds that held in the heat that normally escapes into space through the dry, clear air, and the warm air aloft mixed down to the surface. Temperatures across a large part of East Antarctica rose 30–40 °C above normal.S1
The river and the ridge
The plateau is so cold and dry that any water vapour stands out. On ERA5's map of 16 March the moist air comes in from the ocean towards Wilkes Land, east of Concordia, with the pressure lines packed between the low and the high. The next day the 500 hPa map shows the ridge itself: a dome of high heights centred near Concordia, among the strongest ever seen over the plateau.
Concordia
−15.0°C
ERA5's highest temperature at Concordia on 18 March, against −9.4 °C at the station. Even ERA5's numbers are 30 °C or more above the March normal of −51.9 °C.
| Day | Lowest | Highest |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 15 | -53.7 | -46.3 |
| Mar 16 | -45.9 | -30.1 |
| Mar 17 | -30.0 | -19.7 |
| Mar 18 | -22.6 | -15.0 |
| Mar 19 | -22.6 | -17.1 |
| Mar 20 | -31.6 | -21.6 |
ERA5 captures the rise but not its full height: its high on 18 March is 5.6 °C below the station's. Over the plateau the reanalysis has few observations to draw on, and the shallow layer of air near the snow, where the temperature changes fastest, is hard for any model.
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References
News
- N1NASA Earth Observatory. Ice shelf collapse in East Antarctica. 29 March 2022.The collapse of the Conger ice shelf in March 2022.
Studies and guidelines
- S1Wille, J. D., et al. (2024). The extraordinary March 2022 East Antarctica "heat" wave. Part I: Observations and meteorological drivers. Journal of Climate, 37(3).The record at Concordia, the atmospheric river and the ridge.