The following post is based on
the provisional statement for 2016 published by WMO to inform the UN
Climate Change conference that took place in Marrakech, Morocco (COP22) in
November 2016.
It is very likely that 2016 will be the hottest
year on record, with global temperatures even higher than the record-breaking
temperatures in 2015.
Long-term climate change indicators are also record
breaking. Throughout the year, extreme weather led to considerable
socio-economic losses in all regions of the world.
Highlights of 2016
Temperatures
Global temperatures for January to September 2016
were approximately 1.2°C above pre-industrial levels and 0.88°C (1.58°F) above
the average for the 1961-1990 reference period.
Oceans
Temperatures were above normal over most ocean
areas. This contributed to significant coral bleaching and disruption of marine
ecosystems in some tropical waters, including the Great Barrier Reef off the
east coast of Australia, and Pacific island countries such as Fiji and
Kiribati. Coral mortality of up to 50% was reported in parts of the Great
Barrier Reef.
Global sea levels rose about 15 millimetres between
November 2014 and February 2016 as a result of El Niño, well above the
post-1993 trend of 3 to 3.5 mm per year, with the early 2016 values reaching
new record highs. Since February, sea levels have remained fairly stable.
Greenhouse gas concentrations
Annual average global carbon dioxide concentrations
in 2015 reached 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time. Initial
observations indicate new records in 2016. At Cape Grim (Australia), CO2
levels in August averaged 401.42 ppm, compared with 398.13 ppm in August 2015.
At Mauna Loa (Hawaii), mean weekly concentrations of CO2 as of 23
October were 402.07 ppm, compared with 398.50 ppm at the same time in 2015,
whilst the May 2016 value of 407.7 ppm was the highest monthly value on record.
Ice and snow cover
Arctic sea ice extent was well below normal
throughout the year. The seasonal minimum in September was 4.14 million square
kilometres, the equal-second (with 2007) lowest extent on record after 2012.
The winter maximum in March was the lowest on record. The autumn freeze-up has
also been much slower than normal; the sea ice extent as of the end of October
is the lowest on record for the time of year.
After several years of well-above-normal values,
Antarctic sea ice extent fell to near normal by the start of 2016. It reached a
seasonal maximum nearly a month earlier than usual. It was still well below
normal as of the end of October.
Summer melting on the Greenland ice sheet was
substantially above the 1990-2013 average, with especially strong melting in
July, but was less than in the record melting year of 2012.
High-Impact events
- Hurricane Matthew in October, which hit Haiti, Cuba, the Bahamas, and the US.
- Typhoon Lionrock, which caused destructive flooding and heavy casualties in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
- Cyclone Winston, the most severe tropical on record to affect Fiji.
- Yangtze basin in China had its most significant summer floods since 1999.
- Flooding and landslides in Sri Lanka in mid-May left more than 200 people dead or missing, and displaced several hundred thousand.
- Above-normal seasonal rainfall in the Sahel led to significant flooding in the Niger River basin.
- There were also a number of major heatwaves, wildfires and droughts during 2016.
What is in store for us in 2017? Climate change
impact could be even more severe. There is also uncertainty about global action
on climate change, with the election of Donald Trump as the US President. He
denies the very idea of climate change and so does Scott Pruitt, the new head
of the US Environmental Protection Agency, appointed by Trump.
This post relates to Chapter 13 of the book.
