Present and Future of Rainfall in Antarctica

While most precipitation in Antarctica falls as snow, little is known about liquid precipitation, although it can have ecological and climatic impacts. This study combines meteorological reports at 10 stations with the ERA5 reanalysis to provide a climatological characterization of rainfall occurrence over Antarctica. Along East Antarctic coast, occurs 22 days per year coincides maritime intrusions blocking anticyclones. Over north-western Peninsula, more than 50 on average recent summer cooling was accompanied by decrease −35 annual rainy decade between 1998 2015 Faraday-Vernadsky. Projections from seven latest-generation climate models reveal that coasts will experience warming frequent intense end century. Rainfall expected impact new regions continent, increasing their vulnerability melting preconditioning surface snow.