Storm systems in Antarctica are becoming increasingly frequent and intense: the impacts

Winter storms in the south-western Ross Sea have become more frequent and more intense during the study period, with significant consequences.

Lead author Antonia Radlwimmer uses a magnaprobe to measure the thickness of snow covering sea ice in McMurdo Sound in November 2024. Photo: Inga Smith.

Winters in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica have become stormier over recent decades, affecting sea ice conditions and field operations, according to new research from the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka.

Published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the study used weather station data on atmospheric pressure and temperature to analyse the behaviour of storm systems between 1964 and 2024.

More intense and frequent storms

The researchers found that winter storms in the south-western Ross Sea became more frequent and more intense during this period, while also becoming more variable. Exceptionally stormy winters tended to alternate every two years with unusually calm seasons.

Lead author Antonia Radlwimmer, who carried out the research as part of her doctoral studies in the Department of Physics at the University of Otago, says that during the particularly stormy winters of 2019, 2022 and 2024, fast ice – sea ice attached to the coastline, ice shelves or grounded icebergs – took considerably longer to form in the southern sound because the storms repeatedly broke up newly formed sea ice.

Archive image of Antarctica surrounded by storm systems. Source: NASA.

Co-author Dr Greg Leonard, from Otago’s School of Surveying, said the researchers analysed satellite imagery to determine the timing of seasonal sea ice formation and

Original Record.

This archived record authored by ‘Helena Mottram’ at ‘METEORED (Your Weather)’ was recovered from data set:

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