Whats the highest temperature recorded there?
The Russian station at Vostok recorded its world-record low temperature on July 21, 1983. This is the middle of winter in Antarctica. Unfortunately, the kind of detailed records that would give the highest single-day temperature at Vostok are not available. But January 2003, with a monthly average temperature of -26°F, was the warmest on record there. Vostok is on the Antarctic Ice Sheet, 11,220 feet above sea level. The official highest temperature for anywhere in Antarctica is 59°F on Jan. 5, 1974, at the now-closed New Zealand Vanda Station in the Dry Valleys near the coast. The U.S. South Pole Station, which is 9,450 feet above sea level, has been as cold as -117°F. The warmest temperature ever recorded there was 7°F. We could see Vostok’s world cold record fall soon, perhaps this year, says Matthew Lazzara of the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center at the University of Wisconsin. China is planning to build a research station at an area of the Antarctic Ice Sheet known as Dome
