26.09.2022
“Climate change shows no sign of slowing down” — NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad
In 2021, scientists record the highest annual average atmospheric CO2 concentration over the past million years (based on palaeoclimate records).
Photo by: lcva2 / iStock
On 31 August 2022, the 32nd annual global climate survey, led by scientists from NOAA’s National Centres for Environmental Information, is published. The report is based on input from more than 530 scientists from more than 60 countries.
According to the review, 2021 was a record high for atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations — 2.3 ppm more than in 2020. The warming trend continues, with global surface temperatures in 2021 being 0.21 to 0.28 °C above the average for the period 1991 to 2020.
Oceanic changes continue as well. Sea level and temperature last year were the highest on record. For the tenth consecutive year, global mean sea level rose to a new record, about 97 millimetres above the 1993 average, the year that marks the start of the satellite measurement record.
La Niña conditions, which began in mid-2020, persisted through most of 2021 and lowered sea surface temperatures. The annual global sea surface temperature in 2021 was lower than in 2019 and 2020, but still 0.29 °C higher than the 1991–2020 average.
La Niña is a cyclical surface temperature anomaly in the equatorial Pacific Ocean lasting at least five months, expressed as a 0.5 °C decrease in water temperature.
The year 2022 is expected to be one of the ten warmest years on record, a prediction made by NOA NCEI with more than 99% probability. However, there is less than an 11% chance that it will be one of the five warmest years on record.
As for August 2022, it is globally recognized as the sixth warmest August in a 143-year period. The global surface temperature in August was 0.9 °C above the 20th century average (15.6 °C).
Sea ice extent in the Arctic averaged 6 million square kilometres in August, about 1.15 million square kilometres below the 1981–2010 average. Meanwhile, for the third consecutive month, Antarctica set a record low sea ice extent since records began in 1979.
Global forecasts and trend analyses are published monthly by NCEI on the organisation’s website www.ncei.noaa.gov.
Cover photo: Neurobite / iStock
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