A polar vortex is bringing a cold snap to Europe and Asia – and stoking a huge rally in natural gas prices Amanda Cooper Blue natural gas flame on a domestic cooker gas hob. A polar vortex could bring a freezing snap to most of Europe and Asia, pushing up natural gas prices. UK gas prices jumped ahead of a possible return of the Beast from the East cold weather front. Asian LNG prices hit record highs as demand for power generation has soared.
Natural gas prices in Europe and Asia have rocketed higher this week, thanks to the polar vortex pushing cold fronts into both regions, sending temperatures below freezing and stoking a burst in demand for power generation and heating.
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The Pine Gulch and Grizzly Creek wildfires have burned tens of thousands of acres on the Western Slope, leading to highway closures, evacuations and hazy orange skies on the Front Range made more pronounced at sunset. The view west from City Park in Denver, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2020.
It was more than the year of the pandemic; 2020 was also one of the planet’s hottest years ever recorded. It s a global trend driven largely by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, new data from U.S. and European scientists shows.
Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United Kingdom’s Met Office said 2020 was the second-hottest on record, while scientists at NASA and the European Union’s Copernicus program said the year tied with 2016 for the hottest on record.
2020 was a preview of hotter years to come
‘We’re not going back to temperatures in the 1980s’
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Photo by Ulrik Pedersen / NurPhoto via Getty Images
2020 ranks among the hottest years on record, several science agencies said today. NASA said that 2020 shares the top spot with 2016, following a similar determination by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service last week. The World Meteorological Association (WMO), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and UK Met Office all released figures putting 2020 within the top three warmest years recorded.
They all agree that 2020 continued a trend of climbing temperatures, which is changing what’s considered “normal” on our planet. The warmest six years in recorded history have all taken place since 2015. We just climbed out of the hottest decade on record, and it already looks like the decade ahead will get hotter.
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By Matt McGrath
For Nasa, last year is in a statistical dead heat with 2016 as the warmest year.
Others, including the UK Met Office, believe it is second in the rankings dating back to the 19th Century.
But all the agencies reporting on Thursday agree that last 12 months are part of the warmest decade on record.
Thursday s reports, from five key agencies around the world, show some dissent from this view, but all agree 2020 is in the top three.
image copyrightWales News Service
image captionWildfires raged in many parts of the world as temperatures soared
Nasa says 2020 is tied with 2016, while the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) and the UK Met Office have it second.
The COVID-19 pandemic was not the only long-term crisis the world will remember from 2020. In terms of climate change, the year was also one of the three warmest on record.