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Record Warmth in January Highlights Climate Concerns
The month of January set a new benchmark as the warmest January in global history, intensifying worries about ongoing climate change and its impacts.
Data indicates that the average global temperature for January was measured at 1.75°C above pre-industrial levels, underscoring the rising trend in global temperatures.
Notably, this record warmth occurred despite a transition from the El Niño phenomenon, known for warming effects, to its cooler counterpart, La Niña, which is typically associated with lowered temperatures in the equatorial Pacific region.
Samantha Burgess, a strategic expert at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, expressed her surprise regarding the record temperatures amidst the absence of El Niño. She highlighted, “The temperatures are still at record high for most ocean basins. Also, when we look at air temperatures across the globe, we’ve seen really large anomalies, particularly over the Arctic region where those anomalies have been 20 degrees above average. So that’s a huge anomaly.”
El Niño was most pronounced over a year ago, and the European agency reports that current conditions are neutral, as La Niña has not developed fully. This dynamic raises questions about how effectively La Niña may mitigate the ongoing increases in temperature.
Even in the event that La Niña strengthens, its cooling influence might not suffice to reduce global temperatures significantly, given the prevailing factors such as extreme heat across various ocean basins and the ever-present challenge of greenhouse gas emissions that trap heat in the atmosphere.
In January, the sea surface temperatures globally reached the second-highest levels ever recorded for that month. This data reflects persistent patterns of heat retention in the oceans, corroborating fears about climate change’s trajectory.
Looking ahead, researchers from Berkeley Earth and the UK Met Office project that 2025 could rank as the third-warmest year on record, illustrating a concerning trend that calls for urgent action and recognition of climate issues.
Source
www.yahoo.com