US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the January temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.28°F above the 20th century average of 53.6°F. Photo: HT
New Delhi: Global temperature in January 2018 was the fifth highest for the month since 1880, said the latest analysis released by the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Another analysis by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said that earth’s polar regions continue to experience record-low ice conditions with Arctic sea ice extent the smallest for the month in 39 years (since records began in 1979) at 525,000 square miles which is 9.4% below the 1981-2010 average.
“The monthly extent was 42,500 square miles smaller than the previous record set in 2017,” it added.
NOAA also said the “January temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.28°F above the 20th century average of 53.6°F and that the “last four years (2015-2018) rank among the five highest (warmest) January on record.”
“The January globally averaged land surface temperature was 2°F above the 20th century average of 37°F. This value was the lowest temperature departure from average since 2013 and the eighth highest January land global temperature in the 1880-2018 record,” the analysis said.
“The January globally averaged sea surface temperature was 1.01°F above the 20th century monthly average of 60.5°F—tying with 1998 as the fifth highest global ocean temperature for January in the 1880-2018 record,” it explained.
Meanwhile, as per NSIDC, the January Antarctic sea ice extent was 17.4% below average, the second smallest January on record.
“Only the Antarctic sea ice extent in January 2017 was smaller,” it added.
The latest NOAA analysis only adds to the long list of records that are being set by global warming in the last few years. Last month, US-based Nasa (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) had said that earth’s global surface temperature in 2017 ranked the second warmest since 1880 when global estimates became feasible.
