All-time record high temperature recorded at South Pole
http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/blog/2011/12/29/update-on-record-high-temperatures-at-south-pole-and-aws-sites/Here is an update on the South Pole and nearby Nico and Henry Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) record high temperatures recorded on 25 December 2011:
• The prior record high temperature at South Pole was recorded on 27 December 1978, not on 12 December 1978, as misquoted in some sources.
• Preliminary assessment of the record high at Nico AWS was -8.2C or 17.2F on 25 December 2011. This breaks the previous known record of -13.9C or 7F recorded on 4 January 2010.
• Preliminary assessment of the record high at Henry AWS was -8.9C or 16F on 25 December 2011. This break the previous known record of -14.5C or 5.9F on 5 January 2010.
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For example the West Antarctic Ice Sheet covers the area of Antarctica around the Antarctic Peninsula. That area has had temperatures ABOVE FREEZING. Thus the ice is MELTING and then refreezing at night. This is dangerous for two reasons, First is obvious, ice turn to water flows into the sea raising world sea levels, the Second is hidden and more dangerous. The ice melts and the water then seeps into cracks in the ice, re-freezes, and when water freezes it EXPANDS, thus putting pressure on the ice, which leads to cracks in the ice making the whole Ice Sheet Less Stable.
The point I was trying to make, and I admit I did it poorly, was to point out temperatures below freezing for the South Pole is of much less concern then the above freezing temperateness elsewhere on Antarctica.
The Antarctic Peninsula is in fact an island NOT a Peninsula, if you ignore the ice sheets that surround the Peninsula. Here is a map of Antarctica WITHOUT its ice, it clearly shows that the West Antarctic Ice Sheets are ice Sheets grounded BELOW Sea level:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Antarctica
This is why the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is referred to the Godzilla of Global Warming, it is in direct contact with the Ocean, which can bring warmer water to act directly in the ice Sheets. This warming water can undermine these Ice Sheets and cause them to become Ice Shelves (The difference between Ice Sheets and Ice Shelves is Ice Sheets are grounded on LAND and thus displace only the water BELOW sea level, Ice Shelves, FLOAT on water and thus displace the same water as in the ice of the Ice Shelves.
In simple terms Ice Shelves can melt 100% away and have NO AFFECT on world wide ocean levels. On the other hand, Ice SHEETS (West Antarctic ice Sheet, East Antarctic Ice Sheet, Greenland Ice Sheet and the glaciers of the World) if they melt WILL RAISE GLOBAL OCEAN LEVELS (Greenland and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet about 4 Meters or about 20 feet each, the East Antarctic Ice sheet over 65 Meters).
The East Antarctic Ice Sheet is stable at the present time. It has very minimal contact with the Ocean (Anarchistic is the HIGHEST overall Continent on the planet. Asia and South American have taller mountains, but also lower low lands, i.e. The Amazon Basin and Siberia are MUCH LOWER then the Low lands of Antarctica, thus Antarctic wins the contest for overall height). This height makes the East Antarctic Ice Sheet Stable.
On the other hand the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is UNSTABLE for it is grounded BELOW SEA LEVEL, as you can tell by the above map of Antarctica which shows West Antarctica is nothing by a series if islands surrounded by water (if the Ice Sheets.did NOT exist). The Greenland Ice Sheet is also grounded ABOVE SEA LEVEL, thus is more stable then the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (Through the Greenland Ice Sheet has a huge section SOUTH of the Arctic Circle, unlike the West Antarctic Ice Sheet which is within the Antarctic Circle, thus Greenland Ice Sheet is subject to higher melting temperatures each year then the other Ice Sheets).
For these reasons the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is often called the Godzilla of Global Warming. Unlike the other two huge ice sheets, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could break up and float within a day raising global ocean levels 20 feet over night. Greenland and the East Antarctic Ice Sheet would take decades to melt for neither has direct contact with the ocean. Thus the area around the Antarctic Peninsular is where temperatures have to be watched, and right now, at the height of summer they are well over Freezing.
I'd bet hard cash it'll be top 5 hottest years if there are any takers. 
Roughly 55,000,000 years ago the Earth was at a point called the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum where there were palm trees in what we call the Arctic. It's geological reality. We are NOWHERE NEAR anything even REMOTELY RESEMBLING 'highest temps of all time'. Read it and weep. PM me for my mailbox address to mail the money order.
You'll also note points indicating Antarctic glaciation and thawing.
The 'instrumental record' is for an infinitesimally tiny sample. I'm not dismissing it, the temperatures are simply not "all-time high" nor are they "top 5 highest".
Let me ask you something else: do you believe the climate, at any time, has been static? I have seen NO horizontal lines - the climate record looks like a yo-yo being played with by a kid on a trampoline inside a C-130 coming in for a landing. If there was a generally level or straight line that suddenly went up around the industrial revolution I would be a 'true believer' - but that's not the case. Not even close.
Here's the last 10,000 years:
I find it mind boggling that you can look at that and believe that humans are responsible for climate change. Call me what you want, but I'm going with the accepted geological history.
This is the same exact graph (though it's mirrored) with the temperature record dates of 1855 and 2009 added in. The ice cores are delayed by as much as 100-200 years, because the ice must compact for them to be able to calculate potential temperature.
The reason you dismiss the temperature record is because it goes above and beyond anything in the last 10k years.
You've already established that you don't give a squat about the more accurate instrument temperature record (indeed, you grasp to older less precise data to make your case).
Meanwhile CO2 doesn't require the temperature record at all for us to know it absorbs and emits infrared energy (ie, is a greenhouse gas). I suppose you think releasing billions of tones of CO2 every year should have zero effect on the planetary energy balance?
I'm guessing since it contradicts your faith. People like you caused about 100 people to be burned at the stake as witches for causing the climate to change.
"Relatively stable" is not 'stable'. The climate fluctuates wildly. There are no horizontal lines - the climate is, without exception, either heating or cooling. It has done so before the existence of humans and will continue to do so whether we die off or not. We are irrelevant. Holocene is only 10,000 years old. That's a little too early to make any grand pronouncements. (Was? Holocene is NOW)
The instrument record is fine - but it doesn't cover anything but the immediate time period. That makes it basically meaningless. The data I am 'grasping' to is the data that is available. However, as imprecise as it is, it still shows that there were much, MUCH warmer times. Your claims about the 'top 5' and the OP's "all-time" are absolutely, categorically and significantly WRONG.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greenland_Gisp2_Temperature.svg
It's not even remotely 'stable'. You're just making stuff up.
The dip on the left of '1000' is The Little Ice Age. It caused massive food shortages due to crop failures, game animal die offs. It killed MILLIONS of humans.
Furthermore, basing an argument on 10,000 years while neglecting the bigger picture is dishonest.
There is no stability.
We are a mosquito fart in a hurricane. Here is the Vostok core data:
Where do you think the CO2 and Methane and other 'greenhouse' gasses came from? The ones that caused DRAMATIC climate change? Aliens? CO2 and other gas levels rise and fall on their own.
During the Permian-Triassic extinction event the CO2 levels were so high that the ocean itself was toxic and it killed off almost every living sea creature. Where did that CO2 come from?
All other sources have been sunk by natural sinks.
I encourage it.
Let's see what you've got.
Cheers
If I find one factual error in any of your posts, I presume you are 'big' enough to live by example and admit that would impugn ALL your posts. Of course, I'm sure you've never misquoted or misstated anything ever, so you have nothing to worry about. But, just the same, I look forward to fact checking all your posts past, present and future.
Have a nice day
On a serious note, this is beyond sad. And it's even more sad that so many people don't believe that climate change exists and that man's greed is boosting the rate at which it is changing.
