According to the UN weather agency, June witnessed the warmest global average temperature on record, and heatwaves have persisted into early July. Torrential rains and floods have resulted in dozens of fatalities and affected millions in the United States, Japan, China and India. ‘New normal’ “The extreme weather – an increasingly frequent occurrence in our…
Alarm bells have been rung at the UN agency in particular because of an “unprecedented peak” in sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic. “The first week of July…could be considered as the warmest period or the warmest week ever recorded”, with a global average temperature close to 17.24 degrees Celsius on 7 July, said…
According to a report issued by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, during 2022, multiple nations in the region had their warmest year on record but the expanded use of renewable energy provides a silver lining. Extreme heat, drought and wildfire, marine heatwaves, unprecedented glacier melt – the…
WMO warned on Tuesday that glaciers and ice sheet melt in Greenland and Antarctica accounts for some 50 per cent of sea level rise, which is accelerating, with disastrous impacts on small island developing states (SIDS) and densely populated coastal areas. Glacier melt The average thickness of the world’s glaciers has plummeted by almost 30 metres since 1970. “The cryosphere…
There is a 66 per cent likelihood that the annual average near-surface global temperature between 2023 and 2027, will be more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for at least one year. Warmest year ever And there is a 98 per cent likelihood that at least one of the next five years, and the five-year period,…
WMO latest State of the Global Climate report shows that the last eight years were the eight warmest on record, and that sea level rise and ocean warming hit new highs. Record levels of greenhouse gases caused “planetary scale changes on land, in the ocean and in the atmosphere”. The organization says its report, released…
This investment is critical, including to ensure that energy infrastructure is resilient to climate-related shocks, and to harness the power of energy generated from sources such as the sun and wind, the UN agency said. In this regard, WMO is stepping up its activities to promote tailored weather and climate information, and forecasts, that support…
On the heels of recent news reports about Canada and the United States shooting down several flying objects, including an alleged Chinese ‘spy balloon’, inside their borders, WMO points out that weather balloons provide just a tiny fraction of the millions of observations gathered worldwide daily. On Thursday, US President Joe Biden made public remarks…
The WMO initiative would create a network of ground-based measurement stations that can verify worrying air quality data that’s been flagged by satellites or airplanes, potentially in the next five years. “At present, there is no comprehensive, timely international exchange of surface and space-based greenhouse gas observations,” the UN agency said, as it urged “improved (international) collaboration” and…
