Antarctica registers record temperature

JOHAN ORDONEZ / AFP

Researchers in Antarctica have logged a new record temperature of 20.75 degrees Celsius.

It's the first the 20 degrees barrier has been broken on the continent.

However, scientists have cautioned that it was just one reading and not part of a long-term data set.

The reading was taken at Seymour Island, part of a chain of islands off the peninsula at the northernmost point of Antarctica.

The continent also hit a record last week, with a temperature reading of 18.3C on a base located near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.