Difference between revisions of "Climate of Antarctica"

[[File:Horlick Mountains.jpg|thumb|400px|Snow and ice surrounding the Horlick Mountains]]

[[File:Horlick Mountains.jpg|thumb|400px|Snow and ice surrounding the Horlick Mountains]]

Antarctica's lowest air temperature record was set on 21 July 1983, with −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) at Vostok Station in East Antarctica. Satellite measurements have identified even lower ground temperatures, down to −93.2 °C (−135.8 °F) at the cloud free East Antarctic Plateau on 10 August 2010. It is also extremely dry (technically a desert), averaging a mere 166 mm (6.5 in) of precipitation per year. On most parts of the continent the snow rarely melts and is eventually compressed to become the [[glacier]] ice that makes up the [[ice sheet]]. Weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent, because of the [[katabatic wind|katabatic winds]]. Most of Antarctica has an ice cap climate (Köppen EF) with very cold, generally extremely dry weather.

Antarctica's lowest air temperature record was set on 21 July 1983, with −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) at Vostok Station in East Antarctica. Satellite measurements have identified even lower ground temperatures, down to −93.2 °C (−135.8 °F) at the cloud free East Antarctic Plateau on 10 August 2010. It is also extremely dry (technically a desert), averaging a mere 166 mm (6.5 in) of precipitation per year. On most parts of the continent the snow rarely melts and is eventually compressed to become the [[glacier]] ice that makes up the [[ice sheet]]. Weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent, because of the [[katabatic wind|katabatic winds]]. Most of Antarctica has an ice cap climate (Köppen EF) with very cold, generally extremely dry weather.