CLIMATE: This is the 16th consecutive month to beat worldwide temperature records …
The thermometer exploded this summer … August 2016 broke the record for worldwide temperature, marking the 16th consecutive month to peak at temperatures, announced on Tuesday by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) . These hold the longest period of monthly records recorded since records began in 1880.
JUST IN: Globe was record warm for 16th consecutive month in August — @NOAANCEIclimate https://t.co/e4Cqb6lezm #StateofClimate pic.twitter.com/28VyYXi9Uu
— NOAA (@NOAA) 20 September 2016
The period from January to August was also the hottest in the history. 2016 is poised to beat a new annual temperature record of the globe, surpassing 2015.
No more ice in the Arctic in 2030?
For the first eight months of 2016, the surface temperature of the oceans and the land was located 1.01 degrees Celsius above the 20th century mean (14.1 degrees Celsius), surpassing the previous record in January -August 2015 0.16 degree, said NOAA. The average temperature over land and oceans in August was 0.9 degree Celsius higher than the average of the last century (15.6 degrees), which made it the hottest month of August in 137 years, beating previous record set in August 2015 of 0.05 degrees.
Another sign of the continued global warming, the extent of Arctic ice was 23.1% or 1.6 million km2 below the average from 1981 to 2010, says the NOAA. This is the fourth lowest area of the ice for August since 1979, which marked the beginning of satellite observations. According to researchers, the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free by the summer of 2030, which could affect the jet stream and impact weather further south.
