As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday announced that last month was the hottest January ever recorded, the Guardian reported that Brazilian scientists logged a new record-breaking temperature of 20.75°C, or 69.35°F, at Seymour Island in Antarctica on Feb. 9.
The newspaper noted that the new record, along with one logged on Feb. 6 by Argentina’s Esperanza research station at the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula, “will need to be confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization, but they are consistent with a broader trend on the peninsula and nearby islands, which have warmed by almost 3°C [37.4°F] since the pre-industrial era—one of the fastest rates on the planet.”