Earth just had its 5th-warmest September on record

Earth just had its 5th-warmest September on record

Subject : Environment

Context : September 2022 marked the fifth-warmest September in 143 years, tying with the same in 2021, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Concept :

• The average temperature across the world was 0.88 degrees Celsius above the 20th-century average of 15°C, making September 2021 the fifth-warmest since 1880.
• Higher than normal temperatures were recorded over Africa, north America, southern Asia, Atlantic, and northern South America
• Near normal or cooler temperatures were recorded over Europe, northern Asia, most parts of India, and southeastern Pacific Ocean, the NOAA report said.
• This was mainly due to above average rainfall over northern and southern Asia, Australia, central Europe, Caribbean islands and southeastern US.

Sea-ice Extent

• The sea-ice extent coverage dropped to the eighth lowest ever. The Arctic sea ice now cover 5.95 lakh square miles below the 1981-2010 average, whereas the Antarctica sea ice is 1.90 lakh square miles below average.

Warmest year

• The year-to-date global surface temperature is the sixth-highest on record, and the year 2022 is virtually certain to rank among the 10 warmest years on record.
• However, it is 5% less likely that 2022 will end up in top 5 warmest years because of the fact that La Nina conditions are prevailing throughout the year.

About NOAA

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. governmental agency established in 1970 within the Department of Commerce to study Earth’s oceans, atmosphere, and coastal areas.

About La Nina:

• It means the large-scale cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, together with changes in the tropical atmospheric circulation, namely winds, pressure and rainfall.
• It has the opposite impacts on weather and climate as El Niño, which is the warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).