Arctic sea ice at record low level

UNITED NATIONS: Three powerful heatwaves have hit the Arctic during the northern winter, leaving sea ice at its lowest level on record for the time of year, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.

The United Nations body said the rapid reduction in Arctic ice was one of the clearest signs of how global warming was affecting the planet.

Last year, at 1.1 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period, was the warmest on record for the third year running, and the ocean temperature reached a new high, leading to widespread bleaching of coral reefs, the WMO said in its annual statement on the global climate.

Thermal expansion of the oceans resulted in global sea levels rising much more quickly than the trend in recent decades, it said, with an increase of 15 millimetres between November 2014 and February 2016.

There was an average of 14.2 million square kilometres of Arctic sea ice last month, the lowest for February in the 38-year satellite record and 1.18 million sq km below the long-term average.

Petteri Taalas, secretarygeneral of the WMO, said: ‘‘With levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere consistently breaking new records, the influence of human activities on the climate system has become more and more evident.’’

The WMO said that only a small part of the last year’s record temperature was due to the cyclical natural phenomenon known as El Nino. It also said there was growing evidence of links between manmade climate change and extreme weather events.

The ‘‘heat wave’’ phenomenon was due to warm, moist winds from the Atlantic Ocean, leading to melting-point temperatures at a time when the sea ice normally refreezes.

‘‘We are now in truly uncharted territory,’’ the WMO’s chief climate researcher David Carlson said. – The Times, DPA