It Was the Same Temperature in Cairo and Antarctica Today

by Jeva Lange

If you're reading this from Antarctica, you're going to want to take off your coat. You'll probably want to change into a T-shirt and shorts, too. Heck, don a pair of flip-flops while you're at it—it's a sweltering 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit on the planet's southernmost continent today, Reuters reports.

To put that in perspective: At the time of publication, it is the same temperature in Cairo, Egypt.

Antarctica's record temperature was recorded at an Argentine research base, which sits at the northern tip of the continent's peninsula. The heat record for anywhere south of 60 degrees latitude is 67.6 degrees, recorded January 30, 1982, on Signy Island in the southern Atlantic Ocean. The warmest it's ever been on the Antarctic plateau above 8,202 feet is 19 degrees, in 1980.

Antarctica more often sets the other kind of record: The coldest temperature on Earth was 128.6 degrees below zero, recorded at Vostok station in central Antarctica in 1983.

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