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In the darkness of the Antarctic winter, the thermometer at Concordia Station dropped to minus 84.1 degrees Celsius (-119.4°F). Five days earlier, on July 13, Armstrong, a small community in northern Ontario, had reached 40.8°C (105.4°F), while this year’s highest reported temperature — 52.7°C (126.9°F) — came from Omidieh, Iran.
Measured from Iran to Antarctica, the difference was 136.8 degrees Celsius (246.2°F), large enough to make Earth look like two different planets at once.
But the striking contrast, first reported by The Weather Network, shouldn’t be read as some evidence against climate change. It isn’t. The readings came from opposite hemispheres in opposite seasons: Antarctica was deep in its sunless winter, while much of the Northern Hemisphere was enduring summer heat.
Climate change does not eliminate cold weather. Instead, it raises the baseline, making severe heat more frequent and intense while cold records become less common overall. The Antarctic reading is remarkable, but the broader pattern still points in one direction: hotter oceans, longer heat waves and more frequent high-temperature records.
Why Concordia Gets So Cold
Concordia sits on the high East Antarctic Plateau, more than 3,200 metres above sea level and roughly 1,000 kilometres from the coast. During the polar night, the sun disappears for months. The air is exceptionally dry, the ice sheet radiates heat into the clear sky, and dense cold air settles close to the surface.
According to the French Polar Institute, the station averages minus 55°C (-67°F), over the year and can reach minus 80°C (-112°F), in winter.
Even so, minus 84.1°C (-119.4°F), is exceptional. It’s the lowest air temperature recorded anywhere on Earth since 2012, though it remains 5.1°C (9.2°F) warmer than the official world record of minus 89.2°C (-128.6°F). This was recorded at Vostok Station on July 21, 1983, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s archive of climate extremes.
The World Meteorological Organization still recognizes Death Valley’s 56.7°C (134.1°F), reading from 1913 as the official global high, although some researchers have challenged its accuracy, claiming the instruments weren’t properly set up.
The Ontario heat was also remarkable. Armstrong’s 40.8°C, or 105.4°F, reading was the province’s first above 40°C (104°F), since 1995 and may have been its highest since the Dust Bowl era.
One Cold Reading Does Not Cancel a Warming World
Climate change does not abolish winter, polar night or natural weather variability. It shifts the odds, tilting the planet towards warmer events. NASA’s summary of climate change evidence shows that record-high temperature events in the United States have increased since 1950, while record lows have declined. The long-term trend is rather clear.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service’s June assessment found that June 2026 was western Europe’s hottest June on record and the world’s second warmest. Average sea-surface temperatures outside the polar oceans reached 20.98°C (69.8°F), the highest recorded for any June.
All this devastating warmth sadly claimed many lives. Europe saw 10,000 excess deaths during the late-June heat wave, most among people 65 and older, according to a Reuters review of the preliminary data. The final toll, and the precise share directly caused by heat, may take longer to establish.
A World Weather Attribution analysis concluded that temperatures like those recorded in Europe would have been virtually impossible in June in the climate of 1976. A comparable heat wave then would have been about 3.5 Celsius degrees (6.3°F) cooler during the day.
This story originally appeared on ZME Science. Want to get smarter every day? Subscribe to our newsletter and stay ahead with the latest science news.
