If reporters covering the U.N. climate talks in Durban needed confirmation of the World Meteorological Organisation's evidence that continued global warming was causing extreme weather events, they had it on hand. Yesterday violent thunderstorms drenched Durban and flooded the basement of the conference centre where envoys are meeting.
Reuter reports: "The WMO, part of the United Nations, said the warmest 13 years of average global temperatures have all occurred in the 15 years since 1997. That has contributed to extreme weather conditions that increase the intensity of droughts and heavy precipitation across the world.
"'Global temperatures in 2011 are currently the tenth highest on record and are higher than any previous year with a La Nina event, which has a relative cooling influence,' it said
"This year, the global climate was influenced heavily by the strong La Nina, a natural phenomenon usually linked to extreme weather in Asia-Pacific, South America and Africa, which developed in the tropical Pacific in the second half of 2010 and continued until May 2011.
"One of the strongest such events in 60 years, it was closely associated with the drought in east Africa, islands in the central equatorial Pacific and the United States, as well as severe flooding in other parts of the world."
Arctic sea ice shrank to its second-lowest extent and lowest volume on record in 2011.
Our own Met Office released its own preliminary temperature data for this year, ranking 2011 as the 11th warmest year on record. Its series dates back to 1850.
[Thanks to Reuter and Sydney Morning Herald.]
1 comment:
And with atmospheric CO2 levels around 390 ppm we are probably at the tipping point.....
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