Last year was the fifth or sixth warmest year on record globally. This emerged on Friday during the presentation of the annual ‘State of the climate’ report of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). In addition, a record level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere was recorded in 2022, as well as record warming of the oceans. It sounds like a negative trend that will not change immediately in the coming years.
“The negative trend is likely to continue into the 2060s, regardless of success in limiting global warming,” said WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas. The past eight years have been the warmest on record, with temperatures in 2022 1.15 degrees Celsius above the average for the 1850s-1900s. Europe’s glaciers were melting faster than ever, as was sea ice in Antarctica, while sea levels reached record highs. “All indicators are negative,” said Taalas bluntly.
Weather phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña have had a cooling effect over the past three years. But according to Taalas, El Niño is moving towards a “neutral phase” that would be reached by the end of this year. “Depending on how long El Niño lasts, there is a chance that the temperature record will be broken again next year,” Taalas continued. “Previous estimates show that in the event of a subsequent El Niño, there is a 50 percent chance that the temperature on an annual basis will temporarily rise above 1.5 degrees Celsius, the lower limit set in the Paris Climate Agreement.”
El Niño is responsible for a periodic warming of the ocean waters, which causes the earth to warm up. La Niña physically does the opposite. It temporarily cools the Pacific and Atlantic area. This cooling is then linked to changes in the tropical atmospheric circulation, such as wind, pressure and rainfall.
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