Preliminary: 2016 Global Temps Hottest Ever; On Track For 2.3C Over Pre-Industrial Averages
Earth is "on the edge." So declared the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Thursday, announcing that 2016 was the warmest year on record.
The first global assessment of last year's temperatures finds that 2016 broke the record set in 2015 by close to 0.2°C , with last year's record having broken the record set in 2014. According to meteorologist Jeff Masters, who is not part of the C3S: "The 3-year string of warmest years on record is the first time such an event has happened since record keeping began in 1880."
"We are already seeing around the globe the impacts of a changing climate," Copernicus's Juan Garcés de Marcilla. "Land and sea temperatures are rising along with sea-levels, while the world's sea-ice extent, glacier volume, and snow cover are decreasing; rainfall patterns are changing and climate-related extremes such as heatwaves, floods and droughts are increasing in frequency and intensity for many regions."
Annual global air temperature at a height of two metres (left axis) and estimated change from the beginning of the industrial era (right axis). Sources: Copernicus Climate Change Service, ECMWF, for data from 1979; Met Office Hadley Centre, NASA and NOAA for blended data prior to 1979. (Credit: ECMWF, Copernicus Climate Change Service)
According to a press statement from Copernicus, "2016's global temperature exceeded 14.8°C, and was around 1.3°C higher than typical for the middle years of the 18th century." The peak for global temperatures occurred in February, when they were around 1.5°C higher than at the start of the Industrial Revolution—the global warming cap goal global nations agreed to in the Paris climate deal negotiated at the end of 2015. Yet, as Masters, noted, "[a]ssuming that all nations who agreed to the Paris Climate Accord in 2015 fulfill their pledges, Earth is on track to see 2.3°C of warming over pre-industrial levels by 2050. This is above the 'dangerous' 2°C level of warming considered likely to greatly increase the risk of hunger, thirst, disease, refugees, and war."
EDIT
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/06/earth-edge-disastrous-2016-goes-down-hottest-year-record
