Antartica logs its hottest temperature on record, with a reading of 18.3C on an Argentinian research station thermometer, thrashing the earlier record of 17.5C in March 2015 by 0.8C.

The new reading, taken at Esperanza on the northern tip of the continent’s peninsula set so soon after Antarctica’s previous record of 17.5C, in March 2015, and it is a clear sign that Antarctica is warming at a much faster rate than the global average.
The meteorological agency of Argentina revealed the record on Friday via a tweet. The station’s data goes back to 1961.

One of the fastest-warming places on earth is Antarctica’s peninsula, the area that points towards South America.

Prof James Renwick, a climate scientist at Victoria University of Wellington, was a member of an ad-hoc World Meteorological Organization committee that has verified previous records in Antarctica.

The committee would be likely to reconvene to check the new Esperanza record, he told Guardian Australia.

He said: “Of course the record does need to be checked, but pending those checks, it’s a perfectly valid record and that [temperature] station is well maintained.”

“The reading is impressive as it’s only five years since the previous record was set and this is almost one-degree centigrade higher.