2015-2022 Set to Break Record for Hottest Years on Record

The last eight years have been the warmest on record because of the continuously increasing greenhouse gases and rising heat, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has claimed.

According to WMO’s report titled “State of the Global Climate in 2022,” severe heatwaves, droughts, and floods have impacted millions of people and incurred a loss of billions in 2022.

The global average temperature this year has been recorded at 1.15°C above the global average temperature recorded in 1850-1900. The years 2015 to 2022 have been the warmest years on record.

Since late 2020, La Nina has been prevalent and the situation will not change until the end of this year. La Nina has resulted in relatively low global temperatures in the last two years. However, they are still higher than the last La Nina which occurred in 2011.

The speed of sea level rise has doubled since 1993. Sea levels have increased around 10mm since January 2020 to a new level this year. The total rise in sea levels has been witnessed in the last two and a half years alone. Note here that satellite measurements of sea levels started nearly three decades ago.

Europe’s glaciers have been melting at an unprecedented speed, breaking all previous records. Greenland lost ice mass for the 26th successive year, leading to rain there for the first time in September instead of snowfall.

The concentrations of Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – the main greenhouse gases – touched a new high last year. The annual rise in the concentration of methane was the highest on record. The concentrations of these three gases continuously increased this year as well.

90% of the heat generated by the emissions of greenhouse gases is stored in oceans. The warming of the upper 2000m of the oceans touched a new record last year. During the last two decades, the oceans have warmed at an unprecedented pace. They will keep warming in the future, a change which seems irreversible now.

Marine heatwaves are also becoming a regular occurrence. This year, 55% of the ocean surface has witnessed at least one marine heatwave. Contrarily, just 22% of the ocean surface experienced a cold wave in the same period.



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