2016 the hottest year on record as experts blame climate change
LAST year was the hottest recorded for more than 160 years – and manmade climate change was blamed by experts yesterday.
The average global temperature in 2016 was 0.94C above the 20th century average of 13.9C (57F), according to provisional Met Office figures.
The previous record, set in 2015, was around 0.76C above average.
Peter Stott, acting director of the Met Office’s climate science Hadley Centre, said: “2015 was remarkable for having stood out so clearly from previous years as the warmest year since 1850 and now 2016 turns out to have been just as warm.”
A particularly strong El Nino current warming of the eastern Pacific was partly blamed for pushing temperatures up. The phenomenon, which sees waters around the coast of South America rise, was the most powerful ever recorded.
But global temperatures have been climbing for the past 150 years, according to experts at the University of East Anglia. Records show 2014 was also around 0.58C above average and 2013 recorded a 0.51C anomaly.
Going back to pre-industrial records, the world is now around 1.1C warmer than would be expected.
Professor Tim Osborn, from the university’s Climatic Research Unit, said: “Multiple lines of independent evidence confirm that the planet has warmed over the last 150 years: Warmer oceans, warmer land, warmer lower atmosphere and melting ice.
“This long-term trend is the main cause for the record warmth of 2015 and 2016, surpassing all previous years – even ones with strong El Nino events.” Separate reports from Nasa back the findings that events in the Pacific over the past two years have boosted global temperatures.
Last year also saw record levels of greenhouse gases and melting ice, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
Petteri Taalas, secretary general of the WMO, said: “2016 was an extreme year for the global climate and stands out as the hottest year on record. But temperatures only tell part of the story. Long-term indicators of humancaused climate change reached new heights in 2016.
“Carbon dioxide and methane concentrations surged to new records. Both contribute to climate change. We have also broken sea ice minimum records in the Arctic and Antarctic.
“Greenland glacier melt – one of the contributors to sea level rise – started early and fast. Arctic sea ice was the lowest on record both at the start of the melt season in March and at the height of the normal refreezing period in October and November.”