Ice World Update: Weather Anomaly Experienced In Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a unique region of Antarctica, nearly devoid of snow and ice. An atmospheric river event in March 2022 led to record warm temperatures over much of Antarctica.

This extreme event was uniquely noted in the McMurdo Dry Valleys because contemporary observations of ecosystem responses to unseasonable weather can be anchored to a 30-year record of meteorology, stream flow and soil community data supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation Long Term Ecological Research program.

NSF-funded researchers have released a study that used meteorological observations, stream hydrological observations, remote sensing and soil invertebrate counts and analyses in various areas of the McMurdo Dry Valleys.

The results showed that the region experienced a significant and unseasonable warming event March 18, 2022. These high March temperatures and the associated wetting in the McMurdo Dry Valleys are examples of summer-like temperatures suddenly reoccurring in fall, interrupting autumnal cooling and the seasonal transition to winter.

As such weather anomalies are expected to be more common in future Antarctic climate regimes, the research insights are broadly relevant to the scientific community seeking to predict future ecosystem and organism responses to ongoing climate change.

Response of a Terrestrial Polar Ecosystem to the March 2022 Antarctic Weather Anomaly, Earth’s Future (open access)

Astrobiology