The year 2022 was the fifth hottest on record in the world, with concentrations of greenhouse gases rising to record levels and phenomena such as ‘La Niña’ persisting, climate data released this Tuesday revealed.
Global climate data for 2022 was collected by the Copernicus Climate Change Monitoring Service, one of the six thematic information services of the European Union’s Earth Observation programme, Copernicus.
The Copernicus Climate Change Monitoring Service, which collects global data dating back to 1959, is provided by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, an intergovernmental organization.
According to this service, the year 2022 was the fifth warmest in the world, after 2016, 2020, 2019 and 2017, with an average temperature 0.3°C above the reference period 1991-2020, equivalent to approximately 1.2 °C above that period. from the period 1850-1900.
In some regions and countries, including the Middle East, Central Asia, parts of Western Europe, Northeast and Northwest Africa, China, South Korea, and New Zealand, 2022 was the warmest year.
The concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane -gases responsible for global warming- reached record levels in 2022 since there are satellite records (dating from 2003) and other types of records: the amount of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere was the highest in more than two million years and more than 800,000 years, respectively.
Last year, average carbon dioxide emissions increased by about 2.1 ppm (parts per million), to a total of about 417 ppm, and methane emissions by about 12 ppb (parts per billion), through 1894. ppb.
The natural phenomenon ‘La Niña’, which produces effects on the climate due to the abnormal cooling of surface waters in the Pacific Ocean, persisted for most of 2022 and for the third consecutive year.
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Monitoring Service, relatively low temperatures and high rainfall in eastern Australia in 2022 “are climatic features typically associated with ‘La Niña’ conditions.”
In July and August, Pakistan had record levels of rain that caused massive flooding in the country, killing more than 1,000 people.
Data released today also indicates that the ice in the Southern Ocean reached its “lowest minimum extent” in 44 years of satellite records in February.
At the Vostok scientific station, in the interior of East Antarctica, the temperature reached -17.7ºC, the highest in 65 years.
Greenland (autonomous region of Denmark) had temperatures 8ºC above average in September, a record since at least 1979.
The Copernicus Climate Change Monitoring Service follows the recommendation of the World Meteorological Organization to use the most recent 30-year period (1991-2020) to calculate climate averages.
Source: TSF
