UN and NASA confirm heat record in recent years

Radio France International Science of the world

February 7, 2019

The last four years have been the hottest ever recorded, said the UN, thus confirming global warming. According to NASA and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the hottest record ever recorded was in the last five years.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has announced that the global mean temperature on the Earth's surface in 2018 exceeded pre-industrial levels by about 1.0 degrees Celsius (1850-1900) .

"This year (2018) is ranked fourth among the hottest that have been found," said the UN agency.

"With 1.2 ° C more than in the pre – industrial era, the year 2016, marked by the influence of a powerful child, is still the hottest year "added the agency, citing the warm current of the Equatorial Pacific.

"In 2015 and 2017, the average temperature difference from pre-industrial values ​​was 1.1 ° C".

The UN takes as reference the year 1850, when systematic temperature records began to be made.

However, "it is much more important to observe the long-term evolution of temperature (…) than to clbadify it between different years," said the Secretary-General of WMO, Petteri Taalas. He recalled that "in the past 22 years, the 20 warmest years have been recorded.

"Extreme weather events or significant impacts hit several countries and millions of people last year," he said. "The international community must give top priority to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and climate adaptation measures," he said.

The WMO warned that this year 2019 does not look better.

Australia experienced the hottest month of all time, while a cold freeze hit several parts of North America last week.

NASA and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) simultaneously released an identical forecast for 2018, the fourth-hottest year, given records dating back to 1880.

However, these agencies add one more detail: in fact, this is the last five years, not the four, the hottest ever recorded.

The ice cover of the Arctic and Antarctic was at the second lowest level ever observed.

Last year, there were 14 climate-related natural disasters.

"In total, the 14 events claimed the lives of 247 people and cost $ 91 billion," Noaa said.

But $ 73,000 million was just the cost of three of those disasters: hurricanes Michael (October 2018) and Florence (September 2018) and the huge forest fires on the west coast of the United States.

"The cold snap in the eastern United States certainly does not contradict the reality of climate change," said Taalas.

"The Arctic is overheating twice as fast as the world average (…) What happens at the poles is not limited to the poles, but influences the weather and climate of other regions, where live Hundreds of millions of people, "he said.

The WMO is to publish its statement on the state of the global climate in March, with a wealth of information and detailed statistics.

The agency collects data from NOAA, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), NASA, the Hadley Center of the British Meteorological Service, and the University of London's Department of Climate Research. East Anglia (United Kingdom).

Source