If there’s any place on Earth were global climate change would be embarrassingly evident, it’s the mostly-ice continent of Antarctica, right? Well, yes, except what’s happening now isn’t what you’d expect: The Antarctic sea ice has surpassed an all-time volume record, reports New Scientist. What’s odd is that it’s happening not in spite of global warming, but because of it.

It’s not as though scientists didn’t know this was coming. Since satellite records began in 1979, the sea ice cover around Antarctica has been growing at around 1.5% per decade. Leading up to the recently broken annual record, the ice had broken 150 daily records.

Lest you think that more ice is proof that climate change is a myth, science says to think again. For starters, the southern hemisphere has less land mass than the north, and thus warms more slowly. This creates wind patterns that blow cool air towards Antarctica, further reducing its warmth. Warming also plays a part by, paradoxically, melting other ice – when ice on the mainland melts, it releases easily-frozen fresh water into te surrounding sea.

Scientists say that as long as it’s happening, this is actually a good thing: More ice helps reflect light and generally helps to slow the pace of global warming. Unfortunately, reality will eventually catch up with the southern-most continent. Scientists say that by 2100, things will take a dramatic turn for the worse in terms of sea ice levels.