Highlights of Global Climate 2016
Highlights of Global Climate 2016
Warmest year on record: +0.83 °C +/− 0.10 °C warmer than the average for the 1961–1990 reference period, +1.1 above the pre-industrial period. The 2015/2016 El Niño is one of the three strongest events since 1950.
Sea Level
On timescales longer than about a year, the vast majority (more than 90%) of the Earth’s energy imbalance goes into heating the oceans. As the oceans warm, they expand, resulting in both global and regional sea-level rise. Globally, sea level has risen by 20 cm since the start of the 20th century, due mostly to thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of glaciers and ice caps. Some regions are experiencing greater sea-level rise than others. The tropical western Pacific observed some of the highest rising sea-level rates over the period 1993–2015, which was a significant factor in the enormous devastation in parts of the Philippines when Typhoon Haiyan caused a massive storm surge in November 2013.
EL Niño 2015/2017
The year began with a strong El Niño event, near peak levels in the tropical Pacific Ocean with sea-surface temperatures still more than 2 °C above average in the east-central equatorial Pacific region in January. Conditions cooled steadily through the early months of the year, consistent with typical El Niño decay patterns, and ocean temperatures had fallen below El Niño thresholds by May. The 2015/2016 El Niño event reached a peak Oceanic Niño Index (ONI) value of +2.3 °C for the three-month period November 2015 to January 2016, making it one of the three strongest events since 1950 together with those of 1997/1998 and 1982/1983. (Learn more about El Niño)
Indian Ocean Dipôle
The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) describes a mode of variability that affects the western and eastern parts of the ocean. Indian Ocean Dipole index values fell below −1 °C in both July and September, making it one of the strongest negative episodes since records began. Negative IOD phases are associated with above-average rainfall in many parts of Australia and Indonesia and dry conditions in equatorial east Africa.
Greenhouse Gases
Comprehensive global greenhouse data for 2016 will not be available until later in 2017. The increase of CO2 from 2014 to 2015 was larger than that observed from 2013 to 2014 and that averaged over the past 10 years, despite no significant change in emissions from fossil-fuel source. The El Niño event contributed to the increased growth rate in 2015, both through increased emissions from terrestrial sources (e.g. forest fires) and decreased uptake of CO2 by vegetation in drought-affected areas.
Arctic sea-ice
Arctic sea-ice extent was well below average and was at record low levels for large parts of the year. The seasonal maximum of 14.52 million km2 on 24 March was the lowest seasonal maximum in the 1979–2016 satellite record, just below that of 2015. The annual minimum summer sea-ice extent was equal to the second lowest on record in 2007. The autumn freeze-up was exceptionally slow. The mean November extent of 9.08 million km2 was 0.8 million km2 below the previous record low.
Antarctic sea ice
Antarctic sea-ice extent was close to the 1979–2015 average for the first eight months of the year, reaching a seasonal maximum of 18.44 million km2 on 31 August. However the spring melt was exceptionally rapid, resulting in a November mean extent of 14.54 million km2 – by far the lowest on record (1.0 million km2 below the previous record). The reasons for the rapid collapse of Antarctic sea ice in late 2016 are not yet completely understood.
Highlights by region
Global temperature anomalies in 2016
Reference period 1961–1990
Source: UK Met Office Hadley Centre
Click on the map to get the temperature anomalies 2016.
Africa
It was the second-warmest year for Africa and the warmest June-August period. The year started with an extreme heatwave in southern Africa. Many stations set all-time records in the first week of January; in some cases, these broke records which were only a few weeks’ old, following heatwaves in November and December 2015. On 7 January, temperatures reached 42.7 °C at Pretoria and 38.9 °C at Johannesburg, both of which were 3 °C or more above the all-time records at those sites prior to November 2015. Significant high temperatures were also recorded in Morocco, Tunisia and Libya.
South America
Overall 2016 was the second warmest year for South America. The large majority of the continent recorded above average annual temperatures with temperature anomalies exceeding 1°C over most of northern part of the continent. On the other hand the continent exhibited the most significant cool land area covering parts of Argentina, Paraguay and lowland Bolivia. Cool temperature anomalies were most pronounced in autumn and early winter, especially in May when Argentina had its lowest nationwide mean maximum temperature on record.
North America, Central America, Caribbean
It was the warmest year on record for North America. Continental United States had its second-warmest year on record, Alaska its warmest, and Canada its fourth-warmest.
The most damaging wildfire in Canadian history – and the country’s most costly natural disaster – started in May. On 4 May temperatures reached 33 °C – the highest on record so early in the year – accompanied by strong winds and low humidity. The fire ultimately burned an area of about 590 000 ha before being declared under control in early July.
North America had its warmest autumn on record. Unusually dry conditions in the south-eastern United States contributed to the most destructive wildfire in modern history. In and around Gatlinburg, Tennessee, on 28 November, some 2 400 buildings were damaged or destroyed.
Europe
It was the third-warmest year for Europe. A significant late-season heatwave affected many parts of western and central Europe. The highest temperatures occurred in southern Spain, where 45.4 °C was recorded at Cordoba on 6 September. Portugal recorded the largest burnt area in summer wildfires since 2006. A fire on Madeira in early August coincided with the hottest day since 1976 at Funchal Airport (38.2 °C).
The heat extended to northern Europe: 34.4 °C at Gravesend (England) on 13 September was a late-season record for the United Kingdom by more than 2 °C and the highest September temperature in the United Kingdom since 1911, while many monthly or late-season records were set in Germany, Sweden and Norway.
Asia
Asia had its warmest January-September on record. India and Thailand recorded their warmest year. The highest temperature observed was 54.0 °C at Mitribah (Kuwait) on 21 July, which (subject to ratification) will be the highest temperature on record for Asia. Other extremely high temperatures included 53.9 °C at Basra (Iraq) and 53.0 °C at Delhoran (Islamic Republic of Iran – a national record), both on 22 July. A number of monthly records were set in March and April in Malaysia. A few weeks later, 51.0 °C was observed on 19 May at Phalodi, the highest temperature on record for India.
Extreme heat affected South and South-East Asia in April and May, prior to the start of the summer monsoon. The extreme heat was centred on Thailand, where a national record of 44.6 °C was set at Mae Hong Son on 28 April and all-time records were set at many individual locations.
The most significant cold wave occurred in late January in eastern Asia, with extreme low temperatures extending southwards from eastern China as far south as Thailand. In southern China, Guangzhou recorded its first snow since 1967 and Nanning its first since 1983, whilst the temperature fell to 3.1 °C at the Hong Kong Observatory, its sixth lowest temperature on record.
South-West Pacific
New Zealand had its warmest year on record. During the summer of 2015/2016, long-lived fires affected large parts of central and western Tasmania, which, at the time, was badly affected by drought. The fires mostly broke out in mid-January and extended to areas on the Central Plateau where fire is extremely rare, resulting in significant damage to some sensitive alpine vegetation in Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Areas.
The very warm ocean temperatures contributed to extensive coral bleaching in some tropical waters. Among the areas significantly affected was the Great Barrier Reef off the east coast of Australia, where record high sea-surface temperatures occurred in March. Coral mortality of up to 50% was reported in northern parts of the reef north of Lizard Island.
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