South Pole heat wave

A rare white Christmas at the South Pole brought with it a record-breaking heat wave — at least for a day.

The temperature officially hit 9.9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 12.3 degrees Celsius) December 25, according to South Pole Station, senior meteorologist Phillip Marzette. That shattered the old record of 7.5F (minus 13.6C) set on December 27, 1978.

Those sorts of temperatures may not qualify as mild to some people, but consider that the average annual temperature at the South Pole is about minus 56.9F (minus 49.4C). In the summer, from late October to early February, the average is closer to minus 26F (minus 32C), Marzette said.

“We like to call this our little Christmas miracle that we ended up getting snow and getting a record high for the books,” Marzette said a few days after the record-breaking day, when temperatures had returned to mid-summer norms, about minus 15F (minus 26C).

Source: The Antarctic Sun, 29 December 2011.