Scribd
Upload
12 views2 pages

Record Global Temperatures in February 2016

February 2016 was the warmest month on record according to satellite temperature data, surpassing the previous warmest month of April 1998. NASA also reported that global surface temperatures in February were 1.35°C above the 1950-1980 average, making it the highest temperature anomaly on record. While the current El Niño event contributed to the warming, scientists agree that the largest factor is human-driven global warming, not just natural climate variations. If emissions are not reduced, the effects of global warming will continue to worsen according to climate projections.

Uploaded by

Vince Zafra
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
12 views2 pages

Record Global Temperatures in February 2016

February 2016 was the warmest month on record according to satellite temperature data, surpassing the previous warmest month of April 1998. NASA also reported that global surface temperatures in February were 1.35°C above the 1950-1980 average, making it the highest temperature anomaly on record. While the current El Niño event contributed to the warming, scientists agree that the largest factor is human-driven global warming, not just natural climate variations. If emissions are not reduced, the effects of global warming will continue to worsen according to climate projections.

Uploaded by

Vince Zafra
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Summer in February

Still feel the heat from Engg Week?


With what some scientists described as something out of a sci-fi movie, the Earth
shattered records last month as climate experts dubbed February 2016 as the
warmest month in satellite temperature record.
Climatologists John Christy and Roy Spencer from the University of Alabama
gathered global temperature satellite data per month and showed that last month
was 0.83 oC warmer than the 1980-2010 average; this deviation was higher than the
previous record set last April 1998 which stood at +0.74 oC while the world endured
the so-called "El Nio of the century."
Although the said findings were still under peer review, NASA was quick to back up
Februarys abnormal boiling with figures of their own. NASAs shocking climate
report shows that global surface temperatures in land and water was 1.35 oC
warmer than the baseline 1950-1980 average. The previous record was set just a
month ago in January, at +1.14 oC.
Separate analyses by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the
Japanese Meteorological Agency further supported the unprecedented increase. The
former claimed that last month got the highest temperature anomaly they recorded
since they started recording in 1880.
What some climate scientists worry more are not just the monthly feats, but the
long-term trends. In their report, JMA added that nine out of the top 10 increase
from the average global temperature happened just from last May 2015 to last
month, the other one being on February 1998, again, during the so-called "El Nio
of the century."
It doesnt matter anymore on what agency got the more reliable numbers. The point
is clear Global warming is happening more rapidly and its adverse effects to
humans and the Earth are getting worse.
Its easy to put the blame for all these recent heat fluctuations to the current El Nio
phenomenon ravaging the Pacific region since early 2015, which is said as the
biggest since 1998, but scientists agreed that the largest factor in this run of
temperature highs is human-driven global warming.
Professor Michael Mann, director of Penn State Earth System Science Centre, cited
his earlier research and said that the contributions of the current El Nio to the
recent warm conditions worldwide were minimal to the anthropogenically driven
increase in global temperatures since the preindustrial times. University of
Melbourne professor David Karoly also agreed, saying that this year's El Nio is
weaker than the El Nino of 1997-98 so we know something else is going on.

Scientists have projected that the present El Nio will subside on June this year, but
the global warming trends will surely be there. Not until us humans unite to mitigate
this.

Sources:
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]

You might also like