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)
Fire Earth 
Jan E. said
2017 was 3rd warmest year on record for U.S.
16 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters cost a total of $306.2 billion, making it the costliest year on record. [Previous U.S. annual record cost of $214.8 billion (CPI-adjusted), wasestablished in 2005 due to the impacts of Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma.]
These events included 1 drought event, 2 flooding events, 1 freeze event, 8 severe storm events, 3 tropical cyclone events, and 1 wildfire event, killing at least 362 people.
Since 1980, the U.S. has sustained 219 weather and climate disasters that have exceeded $1.5 trillion in overall damages to date.
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/overview
Full year 2017 – January to December
The average U.S. temperature in 2017 was 54.6 degrees F (2.6 degrees F above average), making 2017 third warmest year in 123 years of record-keeping, according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. In fact, the five warmest years on record for the U.S. all have occurred since 2006.
2017 was also was the 21st consecutive year that the annual average temperature exceeded the average. For the third consecutive year, every state across the contiguous U.S. and Alaska experienced above-average annual temperatures.
The western U.S. wildfires that caused damages tallying $18 billion — triple the previous U.S. record. Losses from Hurricane Harvey exceeded $125 billion, which ranked second only to Hurricane Katrina, the costliest storm in the 38-year period of record. Hurricanes Maria and Irma had total damages of $90 billion and $50 billion, respectively. Hurricane Maria now ranks as third costliest weather and climate disaster on record for the nation, with Irma coming in close behind as fifth costliest.
http://www.noaa.gov/news/2017-was-3rd-warmest-year-on-record-for-us