Antarctica's last 6 months were the coldest on record
CTV
Antarctica's last six months were the coldest on record, according to a new report from the U.S.'s National Snow and Ice Data Center.
"For the polar darkness period, from April through September, the average temperature was -60.9 degrees Celsius, a record for those months," the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said.
The last six months is also the darkest period at the South Pole, which is where the name polar darkness (also called polar night) comes from. Here, the sun sets for the last time around the spring equinox, and does not rise again until near the autumn equinox six months later.
For the entire Antarctic continent, the winter of 2021 was the second-coldest on record, with the "temperature for June, July, and August 3.4 degrees Celsius lower than the 1981 to 2010 average at -62.9 degrees Celsius," according to a new report from the NSIDC.
This is the second-coldest winter (June-July-August months) on record, behind only 2004 in the 60-year weather record at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station," the NSIDC said.