air temperature

Antarctica is the driest and coldest continent on Earth. Only in the west temperatures reach the freezing point during the warmest month, January; otherwise, the annual average temperature of - 55°C is far colder. However, the Antarctic is also affected by global climate change: it is warming up, especially around the Antarctic Peninsula, more rapidly than the rest of the world.

"Imagine a country as large as Australia and Europe together, sunnier than California but colder than the icebox of a refrigerator, dryer than Arabia and higher than Switzerland, emptier than the Sahara. There is only one place in the world that fits this description: Antarctica — this strange but beautiful continent in the lowest part of the Earth." (J. M. Dukert)