Image Source : PTI 2020 was certainly one of three warmest years on document: World Meteorological Organisation
The yr 2020 was one of many three warmest years on document and rivalled 2016 for the highest spot, indicating the tempo of the “human-induced” local weather change which is now as highly effective because the power of nature, the UN climate company has mentioned. All 5 datasets surveyed by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) concur that 2011-2020 was the warmest decade on document, in a persistent long-term local weather change development.
The warmest six years have all been since 2015, with 2016, 2019 and 2020 being the highest three. The variations in common world temperatures among the many three warmest years are indistinguishably small. The common world temperature in 2020 was about 14.9°C, 1.2 (± 0.1) °C above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) degree.
“The confirmation by the World Meteorological Organisation that 2020 was one of the warmest years on record is yet another stark reminder of the relentless pace of climate change, which is destroying lives and livelihoods across our planet,” Secretary-General António Guterres mentioned.
He identified that at 1.2 levels of warming above pre-industrial ranges, the world is already witnessing unprecedented climate extremes in each area and on each continent.
“We are headed for a catastrophic temperature rise of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius this century,” he mentioned.
“Making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st century. It must be the top priority for everyone, everywhere,” he mentioned.
La Nina, which started in late final yr, is anticipated to proceed into the early-middle a part of 2021.
La Nina refers back to the large-scale cooling of the ocean floor temperatures within the central and jap equatorial Pacific Ocean, coupled with modifications within the tropical atmospheric circulation, specifically winds, stress and rainfall. It normally has the other impacts on climate and local weather as El Nino, which is the nice and cozy part of the so-called El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
“The exceptional heat of 2020 is despite a La Nina event, which has a temporary cooling effect,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas mentioned.
La Nina and El Nino results on common world temperatures are usually strongest within the second yr of the occasion.
“It is remarkable that temperatures in 2020 were virtually on a par with 2016, when we saw one of the strongest El Nino warming events on record,” he added.
“This is a clear indication that the global signal from human-induced climate change is now as powerful as the force of nature,” Taalas mentioned.
The extent to which the continued cooling results of La Nina this yr might briefly diminish the general long-term warming development stays to be seen.
The WMO pointed to sustained warmth and wildfires in Siberia, diminishing Arctic sea ice and record-breaking hurricanes within the Atlantic as being among the many local weather occasions that the majority stood out in 2020.
The UN climate company mentioned that temperature is only one local weather change indicator. Greenhouse gasoline concentrations, ocean warmth content material, world imply sea degree, sea ice extent and excessive occasions are additionally elements.
The WMO’s consolidated world temperature replace incorporates info from 5 main worldwide units of information. It additionally makes use of datasets that mix tens of millions of meteorological and marine observations, together with from satellites, with fashions to provide an entire reanalysis of the ambiance.
“The combination of observations with models makes it possible to estimate temperatures at any time and in any place across the globe, even in data-sparse areas such as the polar regions,” based on WMO.
The Paris Agreement goals to restrict world warming to nicely beneath 2°C, ideally to 1.5°C levels, in comparison with pre-industrial ranges.
However, the worldwide common temperature in 2020 had already approached the decrease restrict of the temperature improve that the Agreement seeks to avert.
Moreover, there’s not less than a one-in-five probability that the common world temperature will briefly exceed 1.5 °C by 2024, based on WMO’s Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update, led by the United Kingdom’s Met Office.
The 2021 Met Office annual world temperature forecast additionally means that subsequent yr will once more be one of many earth’s hottest years.
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