Climate change: Warmest decade to come on record

February 7, 2019 5:43 PM | Skymet Weather Team

In statements given out by scientists, world is in the middle of what is likely to be the warmest 10 years since records began in 1850. According to figures released by specialists running the world’s leading temperature datasets confirmed previous estimates that 2018 was the fourth hottest year on record.

The decade that began in 2014 will be the hottest run of years since records began in the early 19th century, as in the next five years we'll see a year in which the average global temperature rise could be greater than 1.5C compared to pre-industrial levels.

This is also seen as a critical threshold for climate change, as it represents the lower bound of the average temperature rise.

Moreover, 2015 was the first year when global annual average surface temperatures reached 1C above pre-industrial levels, and the following three years have all remained close to this level. The WMO also said that the 20 warmest years in history all occurred within the last 22 years.

The WMO said sharp temperatures also contributed to a number of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, droughts and flash flooding over various regions of the world.

Along with this, Nasa and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have also released new figures for global warming.

All the results show the same “escalator-like” rise that scientists think is linked to the loss of sea ice, as well as an increase in extreme weather events around the world.

The impacts of long-term global warming are already being felt – in coastal flooding’s, heat waves, intense precipitation and ecosystem changes.

Image Credits -Wikipedia

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