Global temperatures in 2020 were among the highest on record and rivaled 2016 as the hottest year ever, according to international data compiled by the World Meteorological Organization and released on Thursday.
Global Temperatures In 2020 Among Highest On Record: World Meteorological Organization Global Temperatures In 2020 Among Highest On Record: World Meteorological Organization All five datasets surveyed by WMO showed that 2011-2020 was the warmest decade on record, and NOAA said the seven warmest years since record-keeping began in 1880 have occurred since 2014.
A truck drives through a deforested plot of the Amazon in Boca do Acre, Amazonas state, Brazil.
Washington:
Global temperatures in 2020 were among the highest on record and rivaled 2016 as the hottest year ever, according to international data compiled by the World Meteorological Organization and released on Thursday.
The heat came even as a global economic slowdown from the COVID-19 pandemic cut deeply into emissions from fossil fuels, adding evidence that carbon dioxide concentrations already in the atmosphere have set the planet on a warming track.
2020 closes a decade of exceptional heat
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As 2020 draws to an end, it closes the warmest decade (2011-2020) on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization. This year remains on track to be one of the three warmest on record, and may even rival 2016 as the warmest on record. The six warmest years have all been since 2015.
The exceptional heat of 2020 is despite a cooling La Niña event, which is now mature and impacting weather patterns in many parts of the world. According to most models, La Niña is expected to peak in intensity in either December or January and continue through the early part of 2021, according to a new WMO summary.
The world was 0.3°F hotter last decade than previously thought, indicating that the Earth is warming even faster than estimated, a study has revealed.
Experts from the Met Office and the University of East Anglia have released the latest refinement of the HadCRUT temperature dataset, which stretches back to 1850.
One of the world s major global temperature datasets, HadCRUT is used to calculate the average temperature increases resulting from human-made climate change.
The latest update, a result of improvements to the dataset, found the world 1.93°F (1.07°C) warmer on average in 2010–18 than in the second half of the 19th Century.
The main contributor to warming over the past 170 years has been humanity releasing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the researchers noted.
Updates to one of the world’s major temperature datasets reveals the planet has warmed more since the 19th century than the record previously indicated.
The HadCRUT temperature dataset stretching back to 1850 is managed by the Met Office and University of East Anglia, and is one of a handful used to calculate global temperature rises due to climate change.
A new version of the record shows the world was 1.07C warmer on average for 2010-18 than in the second half of the 19th century, 0.16C more than in the previous set of measurements.
The change comes after improvements to the dataset, not because climate change has suddenly got worse, scientists said.