Last year was one of the two hottest years on earth, related to the previous warmest year, 2016. According to the latest data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Agency, it was the warmest year on record for Europe, 0.4 degrees Celsius (°C) colder than 2019, which was already the warmest year on record for the continent.
Scientists noticed that considering the cooling impact of La Niña, 2020 is related to 2016, as the latter was a record year that started with El Niño’s powerful warming effect. Basically, this suggests that the effect of global warming has become more pronounced.
“The fact that 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record is another stark reminder that human-induced climate change continues unabated. This is particularly remarkable, as 2020 was not under the influence of an El Niño, a mode of natural climate variability in the tropical Pacific which ‘supercharged’ 2016 with extra heat. 2020 did not have such a ‘boost’, yet it almost exceeded the previous record holder. In fact, only a notably colder December (compared to November) prevented 2020 from becoming the new stand-alone warmest year,” said Karsten Haustein, Scientist at the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), in a statement.
Annual global-average surface temperature °C
Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have started to grow at a rate of about 2.3 parts per million per year in 2020 to a high of 413 ppm in May 2020. According to the Copernicus service, last year was 0.6 °C colder than the normal 1981-2010 reference period and around 1.25 °C higher than the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period. This makes them the hottest six on record over the last six years.Last year was the eighth warmest for India also since the country started keeping records in 1901, according to the India Meteorological Department’s statement on Climate of India in 2020.
During the year, the annual average temperature in the country was 0.29°C above normal (29-year average from 1981-2010). In 2016, India recorded the warmest year when the mean land surface temperature was 0.71°C above normal.
