While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) called July 2021 Earth’s hottest July in 142 years of recordkeeping, recent temperatures on Antarctica, the planet’s coldest continent, have been frostier than ever. In fact, the 2021 polar darkness period from April through September was the coldest on record near the South Pole. Dr. David Bromwich of Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center told The Epoch Times that the record is based on direct temperature readings at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. “The satellite measurements started in the late 1970s so this is not a source that can be consulted,” he wrote in an email. “We haven’t consulted any other stations.” The temperatures dipped to a record-breaking average of almost minus 78 degrees Fahrenheit between April and September, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC). On Oct. 9, CNN released a story headlined, “Antarctica’s last …