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2019 was among warmest years on record, Arctic temperatures also increased: Report

WION Web Team
New DelhiUpdated: Aug 13, 2020, 04:09 PM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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The report said winter sea ice coverage in the Bering Sea was by far the lowest since at least 1850, the second year in row to break the record low.

According to the state of climate report, last year was one of the warmest years on record with "all major greenhouse gases released into Earth’s atmosphere reaching new record high concentrations in 2019."

There were also a record number of extreme cool days compared to the last 70 years, but there were more cool days compared to the average of just the past decade, the report noted.

The report added that  2019 was among the warmest years on record and the last decade was the hottest since records began in 1800s.

The climate report said that "lake temperatures had increased on average across the globe in 2019" while asserting that over land, the growing season was an average of eight days longer than the 2000–10 average in the northern hemisphere and the global surface temperatures were near-record high with atmospheric temperatures at record or near-record setting.

The report said that the summer monsoon season set in over Kerala in southern peninsular India on 8 June last year, seven days later than its climatological normal date.  "The monsoon covered the entire country on 19 July, four days later than its climatological normal date. Even with the late start and suppressed monsoon in June, India experienced one of its heaviest summer monsoon rains since 1995." it said.

"The Arctic land surface temperature for 2019 was the second-highest in the 120-year record with record high temperatures in Alaska and northwest Canada with the Arctic sea ice reaching its maximum extent for the year in March 2019.

"Winter sea ice coverage in the Bering Sea was by far the lowest since at least 1850, the second year in row to break the record low. In September, the minimum sea ice extent at the end of summer tied with 2007 and 2016 for the second smallest in the 41-year satellite record," the report said.