NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Siple Dome,ITASE 01-5,ITASE 00-5,ITASE 01-2,ITASE 01-3,ITASE 00-1,Dyer Plateau,Siple Station - West Antarctic Ice Core 20th Century Stable Isotope Data

Although the 20th Century warming of global climate is well known, climate change in the high-latitude Southern Hemisphere (SH), especially in the first half of the century, remains poorly documented. We present a composite of water stable isotope data from high-resolution ice cores from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. This record, representative of West Antarctic surface temperature, shows extreme positive anomalies in the 1936-45 decade that are significant in the context of the background 20th Century warming trend. We interpret these anomalies - previously undocumented in the high-latitude SH - as indicative of strong teleconnections in part driven by the major 1939-42 El Niño. These anomalies are coherent with tropical sea-surface temperature, mean SH air temperature, and North Pacific sea-level pressure, underscoring the sensitivity of West Antarctica's climate, and potentially its ice sheet, to large-scale changes in the global climate.