Debunked: Emissions caused Antarctic heat waves?

Hey everyone. Steve Milloy here. Strong heat waves in the Antarctic during the past two Northern Hemisphere summers have contributed to “hottest day ever” claims by climate hoaxers during the past two Julys. Were the Antarctic heat waves caused by emissions?

These heat waves have raised Antarctic temperatures by as much as 50°F. But it is so cold in the Antarctic in the first place that temperatures have remained well below freezing despite the heat waves. So there’s no need to sweat them. But the Washington Post tried today to explain these recent heat waves and its explanation has nothing to do with emissions.

Although the Post explanation tacitly admits that no one really knows what’s going on, and I agree with that, it offers as a possibility that warming way up in the stratosphere has changed the wind and weather pattern in the troposphere over the Antarctic, so as to cause the heat waves, which in turn, contributed to the “hottest day claims.”

So what might have caused this stratospheric warming? Once again, no one knows for sure, but in January 2022, the eruption of the Hunga Tonga underwater volcano in the South Pacific added 10% to the water vapor content of the stratosphere. And more water vapor could warm the stratosphere and affect Antarctic weather. None of this has anything to do with emissions.

The Post also pointed to a sharp decline in Antarctic sea ice as a contributor to the heat waves. Less sea ice means less solar radiation is reflected back to space. The Post suggests that emissions-driven warming have reduced Antarctic sea ice.

But there may be less Antarctic sea ice because Antarctic sea ice tends to be relatively thin and easily stacked up by strong winds in the windy Antarctic. What could be the wind-maker in the Antarctic? As mentioned earlier, it could be the stratospheric warming possibly caused by the Hunga Tonga volcano. Who knows? No one. And the Washington Post doesn’t even mention the effects of the El Nino of the past year or the ongoing increase in solar radiation the I have mentioned several videos.

Unlike climate hoaxers, I don’t pretend to understand how the atmosphere works. It is complex and no one totally understands the energy flows. But there’s one thing for sure. The weather we are experiencing clearly has nothing to do with emissions which can only add incrementally to atmospheric carbon dioxide which is a mere four one-hundreths of a percent (0.04%) of the atmosphere in the first place. Incremental changes to a trace atmospheric gas are unlikely to cause wild changes in the weather.

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