Two eye-opening studies Tuesday reported record a stretch of heat as climate change continues to affect earth and oceanic environment around the globe.
Each of the first six months of 2016 set a record as the warmest respective month globally in the modern temperature record, which dates to 1880, scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York revealed.
While National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration disclosed that much warmer-than-average temperatures contributed to North America’s warmest June since continental records began in 1910.
June marked 14th consecutive month of record heat for the globe and average sea surface temperature also remained record high.
In a report, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the six-month period from January to June was also the planet’s warmest half-year on record, with an average temperature 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the late nineteenth century
Two key climate change indicators — global surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice extent — have broken numerous records through the first half of 2016, analyses of ground-based observations and satellite data say.
According to NASA analyses five of the first six months of 2016 also set records for the smallest respective monthly Arctic sea ice extent since consistent satellite records began in 1979. The analyses were developed by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland. The one exception, March, recorded the second smallest extent for that month.
“While these two key climate indicators have broken records in 2016, NASA scientists said it is more significant that global temperature and Arctic sea ice are continuing their decades-long trends of change. Both trends are ultimately driven by rising concentrations of heat-trapping carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”
The extent of Arctic sea ice at the peak of the summer melt season now typically covers 40 percent less area than it did in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Arctic sea ice extent in September, the seasonal low point in the annual cycle, has been declining at a rate of 13.4 percent per decade.
“While the El Niño event in the tropical Pacific this winter gave a boost to global temperatures from October onwards, it is the underlying trend which is producing these record numbers,” GISS Director Gavin Schmidt said.
Previous El Niño events have driven temperatures to what were then record levels, such as in 1998. But in 2016, even as the effects of the recent El Niño taper off, global temperatures have risen well beyond those of 18 years ago because of the overall warming that has taken place in that time.
Meanwhile, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that persistent heat on land and in the sea this June shattered records, yet again.
June 2016 was 1.62 degrees F above the 20th century average, breaking last year’s record for the warmest June on record by 0.04 degrees F,according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
For the year to date, the average global temperature was 1.89 degrees F above the 20th century average. This was the highest temperature for this period, surpassing the previous record set in 2015 by 0.36 degrees F.
