North and South Poles hotting up like never before

Record-high temperature recordings are offering even more damning proof of climate change – and scientists are scared.

Hot from top to bottom

It doesn’t take a scientist to realize that the North and South Poles rising in temperature is a bad thing. When a place fundamentally known for being cold begins to warm up, it’s clear that the vibe is off. But when the scientists are getting scared, we should all start worrying.

At the Concordia research base in eastern Antarctica – aka the most remote research base in the world – researchers recorded a record 11.3 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday. For context, this is around 70 degrees warmer than average. Read: Oh, crap.

At the other end of the world, Arctic weather stations were recording temperatures in Norway and Greenland more than 50 degrees above average. So, the planet is getting warmer at both ends.

Panic stations

Experts from across the globe – and across the research stations – are really concerned, and it sounds like we should be, too. After the report hit the Twittersphere and the world went into panic mode, Dr. Jonathan Wille, a postdoctoral researcher in polar meteorology at the Université Grenoble Alpes posted that such high temperatures are “never supposed to happen.”

And if there was any doubt about why this is happening, the experts had their say. Dr. Zachary Labe, a postdoctoral researcher in atmospheric sciences at Colorado State University, told Motherboard that “Climate change is loading the dice for these types of warmer and more moisture events to occur.” The question now is: How do we stop things getting even worse?