2016 Confirmed as Warmest Year on Record Globally
Posted by feww on August 11, 2017
Who Let the Genie Out of the Well?
2016 also 3rd consecutive year of record warmth
Last year was warmest on record, topping 2015, the previous warmest year since 1880, according to the 27th annual State of the Climate report.
Most indicators of climate change have continued to follow trends of a warming globe, while land and ocean temperatures, sea level and greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere broke records set in 2015, according to the report.
Notable findings from the report include:
Greenhouse gases were toppled record. Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, reached new record-high values in 2016. Average global CO2 concentration in 2016 was 402.9 parts per million (ppm), an increase of 3.5 ppm compared with 2015 and the largest annual increase observed in the 58-year record.
Global surface temperature was the highest on record. The 2016 combined global land and ocean surface temperature reached a record-high for a third consecutive year, ranging 0.45°–0.56°C above the 1981-2010 average.
Average SST was the highest on record. The 2016 SST was 0.36C to 0.41C higher than the 1981–2010 average topping the previous record set in 2015 by 0.01 to 0.03 C degrees C).
Global sea level was the highest on record. The global average sea level rose to a new record high in 2016, and was about 82 mm higher than that observed in 1993, when satellite record-keeping for sea level began.
Arctic sea ice coverage was at or near record low. The maximum Arctic sea ice extent reached in March 2016 tied last year as the smallest in the 37-year satellite data record, while the minimum sea ice extent in September tied 2007 as the second lowest on record.
Tropical cyclones were above-average overall. There were 93 named tropical cyclones across all ocean basins in 2016, above the 1981-2010 average of 82 storms. Three basins – the North Atlantic and Eastern and Western Pacific basins – experienced above-normal activity in 2016.
World-wide events from 2016 State of the Climate Report (NOAA)
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