Snow turning to rain

Just before Christmas we had a visit to our RGS Eastern region: the President of the RGS: Professor Dame Jane Francis.

She gave a talk about Antarctica and her experiences there.

One of the things she mentioned was the kit that people working for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are issued before their trip south. She said that the coat used to be a down jacket for insulation but has been replaced by a waterproof jacket. This was because the snow that usually fell on the continent was turning to rain more often.

Bethan Davies has written a pice for 'The Conversation' on the same theme.

This is part of a bigger piece exploring different future scenarios for the continent and its ice sheets and shelves.

The appearance of rain is not good news. This is also the case in the Arctic where rainfall turns more readily to ice which acts as a barrier to reindeer accessing the lichen that they eat.

A related story in the news was about the annual moult that penguins go through.

This has previously been essential for millennia, but the changing climate puts penguins at risk during their moult.

Each year the birds must stay on platforms of floating ice for long enough to replace weather-beaten feathers with new, waterproof coats.

But in 2022-24 Antarctic sea ice shrank significantly, largely down to climate change, depriving the birds of safe places to moult.

Now scientists who track the animals using satellite pictures can no longer find most of the birds. They fear that thousands of penguins may have frozen in Antarctica's icy waters.

"This was really an "oh my God" moment," says the scientist behind the findings, Dr Peter Fretwell at British Antarctic Survey, who has worked on Emperor penguins for 20 years.

"You could see this was something game-changing for Emperor penguins. Suddenly you're thinking, well, have we got time to save them?" he says.