2019 has been the warmest year in Europe every recorded, as well as being the second warmest year worldwide, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
The temperature data provided by C3S shows that the average global surface air temperature was only 0.04 ° C lower than in 2016 , the warmest year recorded so far.
The data also shows that the warmest five years in history were the last five years, with 2019 as the second warmest, with a temperature of about 0.6 ° C warmer than the 1981-2010 average. Also 2010-2019 was the warmest decade recorded.
The average temperature over the last five years was between 1.1 and 1.2 ° C higher than the pre-industrial level defined by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), according to a statement.
Also, the month of December 2019 was on a par with December 2015 in terms of temperature, which makes these two months the warmest decimals in the data record. Specifically, December 2019 was more than 0.7 ° C warmer than the average of December 1981-2010.
According to Copernicus data, the most pronounced warming compared to the 1981-2010 average occurred in Alaska and other large parts of the Arctic. Most of the land areas were warmer than average, especially eastern and southern Europe, southern Africa and Australia. In contrast, central and southeastern Canada experienced annual temperatures below average.
DECEMBER 2019, THE HOTTEST OF ALL IN EUROPE
As for Europe, all seasons were warmer than usual, with summer and autumn being the warmest ever recorded.
The average temperature in December 2019 in Europe was 3.2 ° C warmer than that of the standard reference period (1981-2010), making it the warmest December recorded in the old continent, although by a narrow margin.
Given all this, Jean-Noël Thépaut, director of ECMWF Copernicus warns that the data published on Wednesday “shows undoubtedly alarming signs.”
The results are in line with the projections made previously by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which estimated that 2019 could become the second or third warmest year since there are records.
INCREASE OF CO2 EMISSIONS
On the other hand, the C3S, together with the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) – both in the EU -, ensures that the concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere have continued to increase during 2019, which also confirms the prediction of the WMO and the Global Carbon Project (BPC).
Thus, the estimated average annual growth rate of last year was higher than the growth rate in 2018, but lower than that of 2015, the year in which a strong El Niño event occurred, which resulted in a higher atmospheric growth rate due to weaker than normal absorption of atmospheric CO2 by terrestrial vegetation, and also due to large CO2 emissions from forest fires, for example in Indonesia.
