On Record; Arctic Ice Hits Record Low

Daily Environment Report^™

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Source:  Daily Environment Report: News Archive > 2011 > January > 01/21/2011 > News > Climate Change: U.N. Agency Says 2010 Warmest Year On Record; Arctic Ice Hits Record Low

14 DEN A-5

Climate Change

U.N. Agency Says 2010 Warmest Year
On Record; Arctic Ice Hits Record Low

GENEVA—The year 2010 was the hottest on record and brought to an end the warmest decade since records have been kept, a U.N. agency said Jan. 20.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said the global average temperature in 2010 was 0.53 degrees Celsius (0.95 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1961-1990 average. The 2010 average was also 0.01 C (0.02 F) and 0.02 C (0.05 F) above the previous record years of 1998 and 2005, respectively.

“The 2010 data confirm the Earth's significant long-term warming trend,” WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said, noting that the 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 1998.

Between 2001 and 2010, global temperatures averaged 0.46 C (0.83 F) above the 1961-1990 average, and were the highest recorded for a 10-year period since the beginning of instrumental climate records, WMO said.

“Recent warming has been especially strong in Africa, parts of Asia, and parts of the Arctic,” the U.N. agency added. It said certain subregions have registered temperatures 1.2 C to 1.4 C (2.2 F to 2.5 F) above the long-term average.

The WMO figures were based on data collected by the U.K. Meteorological Office's Hadley Center, the National Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

NOAA said Jan. 12 that 2010 tied with 2005 as the warmest year on record (9 DEN A-4, 1/13/11).

Record Melting of Ice Cap

In addition to record warming, 2010 saw record melting of the Arctic ice cap, WMO said. It said Arctic sea ice cover in December was the lowest on record, with an average monthly extent of 12 million square kilometers (4.63 million square miles), 1.35 million square kilometers (502,000 square miles) below the 1979-2000 average for December. This followed the third-lowest ice extent recorded in September.

Jarraud said the latest figures leave no doubt that global warming is real and increasing.

If global warming skeptics “look at the figures in an unbiased way, the figures should convince them, or hopefully a few of them, that this skeptical position is untenable,” the WMO chief declared.

Jarraud added it was not a question of whether the warming trend will continue in coming years, but what the intensity of the warming will be.

“It will depend on the decisions made in the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” he said. “It's important to minimize as much as possible the release of greenhouse gases. But even with what's already in the atmosphere, there will be further warming.”

By Daniel Pruzin

More information on WMO's global warming findings is available at http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/news/index_en.html.