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February 6, 2020

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Hottest January ever as world warms

Last month was the warmest January on record globally, while in Europe temperatures were three degrees Celsius above the January average from 1981 to 2010, the European Union鈥檚 climate monitoring system reported on Tuesday.

Across a band of countries from Norway to Russia, temperatures were an unprecedented six degrees above the same 30-year benchmark, Copernicus Climate Change Service reported in a statement.

New temperature highs 鈥 monthly, yearly, decadal 鈥 have become commonplace due to the impact of climate change, caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels, scientists say. The five past years have been the hottest on record, as was the ten-year period 2010-2019.

The year 2019 鈥 the second warmest year 鈥 was only 0.04 degrees below 2016, when temperatures were boosted by a powerful El Nino, a periodic natural weather phenomenon over the Pacific Ocean.

The global record last month was 0.03 degrees above the preceding warmest January, also in 2016.

For Europe, last month was 鈥渁bout 0.2 degrees warmer than the previous warmest January in 2007, and 3.1 degrees warmer than the average January in the period 1981-2010,鈥 C3S reported.

Records also tumbled in specific locations across the northern reaches of the continent.

Exceptional above-average temperatures extended over nearly all Russia as well, and they were higher than normal over much of the United States, eastern Canada, Japan and parts of eastern China.

Temperatures were likewise higher than normal in New South Wales in Australia, where massive bushfires devastated large areas of the state.

Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 鈥 which causes global warming 鈥 are now at their highest level in at least 800,000 years.

The UN said last year manmade greenhouse gas emissions needed to fall 7.6 percent annually over the next decade to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels, the goal set in the landmark Paris Agreement.


 

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