'Extreme and unusual' climate trends continue after record 2016

In the atmosphere, the seas and around the
poles, climate change is reaching disturbing new
levels across the Earth.
That's according to a detailed global analysis
from the World Meteorological Organization
(WMO).
It says that 2016 was not only the warmest year
on record, but it saw atmospheric CO2 rise to a
new high, while Arctic sea ice recorded a new
winter low.
The "extreme and unusual" conditions have
continued in 2017, it says.
Complete picture
Reports earlier this year from major scientific
bodies - including the UK's Met Office, Nasa and
NOAA - indicated that 2016 was the warmest
year on record.
The WMO's State of the Global Climate 2016
report builds on this research with information
from 80 national weather services to provide a
deeper and more complete picture of the year's
climate data.
Compared with the 1961-1990 reference period,
2016 was 0.83 degrees C warmer than the
average. It was around 1.1C above the pre-
industrial period, and at 0.06C just a fraction
warmer than the previous warmest year record in
2015.
"This increase in global temperature is consistent
with other changes occurring in the climate
system," said WMO Secretary-General, Petteri
Taalas.
"Globally averaged sea-surface temperatures
were also the warmest on record, global sea-
levels continued to rise, and Arctic sea-ice extent
was well below average for most of the year," he
said.
Not all the world warmed at equal speed in 2016.
In the Arctic, temperatures were about 3 degrees
C above the 1961-1990 average. In Svalbard, the
Norwegian island high in the Arctic circle, the
yearly average was 6.5 degrees above the long-
term mark.
The report says that temperatures in 2016 were
"substantially influenced" by the El Niño weather
phenomenon, contributing 0.1 to 0.2 degrees on
top of the longer-term warming driven by
emissions of CO2.
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However, El Niño also had an influence on the
levels of the gas in the atmosphere.
"The CO2 rise in 2016 was the fastest on record -
3.4ppm (parts per million) per year - because the
El Niño weakened the tropical carbon sink and
gave the ongoing CO2 rise an extra kick on top of
the effect of human emissions," said Prof Richard
Betts from the Met Office Hadley Centre.
"As a result, 2016 became the first year in which
CO2 measurements at Mauna Loa remained
above 400ppm all year round."
The report states that extreme weather events in
2016 included severe droughts in southern and
eastern Africa, and in Central America. Hurricane
Matthew in the North Atlantic was one of the
most damaging weather-related disasters ,
leaving hundreds of dead and swathes of
destruction across Haiti.
Extremes continue
The WMO says that the "extreme and unusual"
climate and weather trends have continued into
2017. At least three times this winter, the Arctic
experienced the equivalent of a heatwave, as
powerful Atlantic storms drove warm, moist air
into the region.
Changes in the Arctic and the melting of sea-ice
are also leading to a shift in atmospheric
circulation patterns impacting other parts of the
world. This is causing unusual heat in some
areas - In the US, over 11,000 warm temperature
records were broken in early 2017.
"Even without a strong El Niño in 2017, we are
seeing other remarkable changes across the
planet that are challenging the limits of our
understanding of the climate system. We are now
in truly uncharted territory," said David Carlson,
World Climate Research Programme Director at
the WMO.
In the face of all this information, climate
researchers around the world are irked by the
attitude of the Trump government in Washington.
The new administration has rolled back some of
the global warming measures taken by President
Obama, while the newly appointed head of the
Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt,
denied that CO2 was a primary contributor to
warming .
"The WMO's statement on the 2016 climate
leaves no room for doubt. The much-hyped
warming hiatus is over - and the 'missing' heat
energy didn't go missing at all. Instead, that heat
went into the ocean, and we got much of it back
again last year," said Dr Phil Williamson, from the
University of East Anglia.
"Human-driven climate change is now an
empirically verifiable fact, combining year-to-year
variability with the consequences of our release
of extra greenhouse gases. Those who dispute
that link are not sceptics, but anti-science
deniers."