Climate of Antarctica
The climate of Antarctica is the coldest on Earth. Antarctica's lowest air temperature record was set on 21 July 1983, with −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) at Vostok Station. 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 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 winds. Most of Antarctica has an ice cap climate (Köppen EF) with very cold, generally extremely dry weather.
The lowest reliably measured temperature of a continuously occupied station on Earth of −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) was on 21 July 1983 at Vostok Station. For comparison, this is 10.7 °C (19.3 °F) colder than subliming dry ice (at sea level pressure). The altitude of the location is 3,900 meters (12,800 feet).
The lowest recorded temperature of any location on Earth's surface was −93.2 °C (−135.8 °F) at 81°48′S 63°30′E / 81.8°S 63.5°E, which is on an unnamed Antarctic plateau between Dome A and Dome F, on August 10, 2010. The temperature was deduced from radiance measured by the Landsat 8 satellite, and discovered during a National Snow and Ice Data Center review of stored data in December, 2013. This temperature is not directly comparable to the -89.2 quoted above, since it is a skin temperature deduced from satellite-measured upwelling radiance, rather than a thermometer-measured temperature of the air 1.5 m (4.9 ft) above the ground surface.
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