March Temperature Smashes 100-Year Global Record
Damian Carrington
4/15/2016 7:05:50 PM
The global temperature in March has shattered a century-long record and by the greatest margin yet seen for any month.
February was far above the long-term average globally, driven largely by climate change, and was described by scientists as a “shocker” and signalling “a kind of climate emergency”. But data released by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) shows that March was even hotter.
Compared to the 20th-century average, March was 1.07C hotter across the globe, according to the JMA figures, while February was 1.04C higher. The JMA measurements go back to 1891 and show that every one of the last 11 months has been the hottest ever recorded for that month.
The World Meteorological Organization, the UN body for climate and weather, said the March data had “smashed” previous records.
Climate change is usually assessed over years and decades, but even scientists have been struck by the recent unprecedented temperatures. Furthermore, annual heat records have been also tumbling, with 2015 demolishing the record set in 2014 for the hottest year seen, in data stretching back to 1850.
The UK Met Office also expects 2016 to set a new record, meaning the global temperature record is set to have been broken for three years in a row.
The Met Office, along with the US agencies Nasa and Noaa, keep the most-used global temperature records and will release their assessment of March temperatures later this month. But the JMA records have shown the same trends as these in the past.
The UN climate summit in Paris in December confirmed 2C as the danger limit for global warming which should not be passed. But it also agreed agreed to “pursue efforts” to limit warming to 1.5C, a target now looking highly optimistic.
A major El Niño weather event, the biggest since 1998, is boosting global temperatures. But scientists are agreed that global warming driven by humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions is by far the largest factor in the astonishing run of temperature records.
The impact of the heat has been seen around the world and at the end of March scientists announced that the winter peak of the Arctic ice cap was the smallest ever recorded on records going back to 1979.
February was far above the long-term average globally, driven largely by climate change, and was described by scientists as a “shocker” and signalling “a kind of climate emergency”. But data released by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) shows that March was even hotter.
Compared to the 20th-century average, March was 1.07C hotter across the globe, according to the JMA figures, while February was 1.04C higher. The JMA measurements go back to 1891 and show that every one of the last 11 months has been the hottest ever recorded for that month.
The World Meteorological Organization, the UN body for climate and weather, said the March data had “smashed” previous records.
Climate change is usually assessed over years and decades, but even scientists have been struck by the recent unprecedented temperatures. Furthermore, annual heat records have been also tumbling, with 2015 demolishing the record set in 2014 for the hottest year seen, in data stretching back to 1850.
The UK Met Office also expects 2016 to set a new record, meaning the global temperature record is set to have been broken for three years in a row.
The Met Office, along with the US agencies Nasa and Noaa, keep the most-used global temperature records and will release their assessment of March temperatures later this month. But the JMA records have shown the same trends as these in the past.
The UN climate summit in Paris in December confirmed 2C as the danger limit for global warming which should not be passed. But it also agreed agreed to “pursue efforts” to limit warming to 1.5C, a target now looking highly optimistic.
A major El Niño weather event, the biggest since 1998, is boosting global temperatures. But scientists are agreed that global warming driven by humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions is by far the largest factor in the astonishing run of temperature records.
The impact of the heat has been seen around the world and at the end of March scientists announced that the winter peak of the Arctic ice cap was the smallest ever recorded on records going back to 1979.