Antarctic weather severity data

Due to the high altitude, thin air, and the reflection of solar radiation from the ice and snow surface, the Antarctic continent has become the coldest region in the world, with an average temperature 20°C lower than the Arctic. The average annual temperature in Antarctica is -25°C. The annual average temperature in the Antarctic coastal areas is about minus 17 to minus 20 degrees Celsius; while the annual average temperature in the inland areas is minus 40 to minus 50 degrees Celsius; the East Antarctic Plateau is the coldest, with the annual average temperature as low as -53 degrees Celsius. The lowest temperature observed on the earth is -93.2°C, which was recorded in the United States in August 2010. At such low temperatures, ordinary steel will become as brittle as glass; if a glass of water is poured into the air, it will fall What came turned out to be a piece of ice crystal. The coldness of Antarctica is first of all related to its high latitude location. Due to its high latitude location, there is no sunlight during the long polar night of the year. At the same time, it is related to the incident angle of sunlight. The higher the latitude, the smaller the incident angle of sunlight, and the less solar heat energy absorbed per unit area. Antarctica is located at the highest latitude on the earth. The incident angle of the sun is the smallest. The sunlight can only reach the surface obliquely, and the heat of the oblique sunlight is the lowest. Furthermore, 95% of the Antarctic continent is covered by white ice and snow. The reflectivity of ice and snow to sunlight is 80% to 84%, leaving less than 20% to reach the ground, and most of this pitiful little heat is reflected back into space. . The high altitude and relatively thin air of Antarctica make it difficult to retain heat, so Antarctica is extremely cold.

Antarctica is not only the coldest place in the world, but also the windiest place in the world. There are an average of 300 days of strong winds above level 8 every year, and the annual average wind speed is 19.4 meters/second. The maximum wind speed observed at Australia's Mawson Station in 1972 was 82 meters/second. A hurricane with wind speeds of 100 meters/second was observed at the Dirville Station in France, which is equivalent to three times the level of a Category 12 typhoon and is the highest wind speed recorded in the world so far. The reason why Antarctic storms are so powerful is that the temperature of the snow surface of the Antarctic continent is low, and the nearby air is rapidly cooled and contracted, becoming heavier and denser. The ice sheet covering the Antarctic continent is like a "discus" that is thick in the middle and thin around the edges, forming a steep slope terrain between the central high and the coastal areas. The heavier cold air slides sharply down the slope from high inland areas. When it reaches the coastal areas, the sudden drop in terrain increases the speed of the cold air flow, forming a strong and extremely fast katabatic wind. There are no four seasons in Antarctica, only warm and cold seasons. The warm season is from November to March; the cold season is from April to October. In the warm season, the average temperature in the coastal zone rarely exceeds 0°C, and in the inland areas the average temperature is -35~-20°C; in the cold season, the coastal zone is -28~-5°C, and the inland area is -70~-40°C. ℃. In July 1983, Russia's Vostok Station measured the world's lowest temperature of -89.2°C. It is estimated that even lower temperatures may exist in East Antarctica.