In the last few months, you may have heard reports that some of the fastest warming in the world is occurring in Antarctica. You may have also heard that Antarctica is cooling. Or that some of its glaciers are thinning. Or that sea ice around the continent is growing. It can all be pretty confusing.

Indeed, a few months ago, an ice shelf the size of Rhode Island did disintegrate on the spindly peninsula of Antarctica that stretches toward South America - similar breakoffs have occurred in that area in the last few years. On that peninsula, temperatures have risen about 5^oF in the last 50 years, a significant warmup. But there are no signs of widespread warming in most of the rest of Antarctica. In fact, enough of the continent has cooled over the last few decades so that on average, Antarctica as a whole has cooled slightly. And satellite measurements show that sea ice now covers about two percent more area around Antarctica that it did 20 years ago.

So what's going on? Well, remember, Antarctica is big - in fact, it's one-third larger than the United States. And as in this country, climate does not move in lock-step everywhere. Antarctica is simply showing a mixed bag of temperature signals, and there's nothing unusual about that.