© Andrew V. Williams/Antarctic Photo Library
The South Pole Station, which saw a record high of 9.9 degrees Fahrenheit on Christmas Day, shattering the previous record of 7.5F set 33 years ago. The warm temperatures were accompanied by a rare bit of snow.
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) about 3:50 p.m. on Dec. 25, according to
South Pole Station site senior meteorologist Phillip Marzette. That shattered the old record of 7.5F (minus 13.6C) set on Dec. 27, 1978 - though technically that record had been broken on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2011, when the temperature climbed to 8.1F (minus 13.3C). (All dates and times are local, based on the New Zealand time zone.)
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).
The snow was certainly an unexpected bonus. Precipitation in the continental interior is normally very light. Ice crystals are the most common form of precipitation at the South Pole. Ice crystals often fall out of a clear sky, glittering like tiny diamonds in the sunshine, and sometimes creating atmospheric phenomena like sundogs.
Larger snow grains often accompany storms, while actual snowflakes usually only occur at the height of summer, from mid-December to mid-January, when temperatures are at their warmest.
