On February 8, 2020 a record temperature of 64.9 degrees was set at the Argentina Research Station, Esperanza. The previous record for this station on the Antarctic Peninsula was 63 degrees in March of 2015. The record temperature was roughly the same as the high temperature in Los Angeles that day.

The vast ice cap of Antarctica contains 90 percent of the fresh water in the world. When the land ice melts, as opposed to the sea ice, it has nowhere to go except into the ocean, leading to rising ocean levels. If just the ice contained in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melted, sea levels would rise 3.2 meters. The Esperanza base is located in the Northern section of that ice sheet.