La veille

Breathless reporting on when the present global heat anomaly will begin to fall is understandable, given heat suffering around the world. However, fundamental issues are in question and a reflection on time scales is in order, for the sake of understanding ongoing climate change and actions that need to be taken.

Global temperature (12-month mean) is still rising at 1.56°C relative to 1880-1920 in the GISS analysis through April (Fig. 1). [Robert Rohde reports that it is 1.65°C relative to 1850-1900 in the BerkeleyEarth analysis.[3]] Global temperature is likely to continue to rise a bit for at least a month, peak this summer, and then decline as the El Nino fades toward La Nina. Acceleration of global warming is now hard to deny. The GISS 12-month temperature is now 0.36°C above the 0.18°C/decade trend line, which is 3.6 times the standard deviation (0.1°C). Confidence in global warming acceleration thus exceeds 99%, but we need to see how far temperature falls with the next La Nina before evaluating the post-2010 global warming rate.

Global warming is accelerating because the drive for warming, Earth’s energy imbalance, has doubled in the past decade. Measurement of the acceleration is hampered by unforced tropical (El Nino/La Nina) variability, but a good measuring stick is provided by warming between successive large El Ninos. Strengthening of the current (2023-24) El Nino has raised it to a level similar to the 1997-98 and 2015-16 El Ninos. The first six months of the current El Nino are 0.39°C warmer than the same six months of the 2015-16 El Nino, a global warming rate of 0.49°C/decade, consistent with expectation of a large acceleration of global warming. We expect the 12-month mean temperature by May 2024 to eliminate any doubt about global warming acceleration. Subsequent decline of the 12-month temperature below 1.5°C will likely be limited, confirming that the 1.5°C limit has already been passed.

It’s hot and getting hotter. The first six months of the year are about 0.2°C cooler than the first six months of 2016 and 2020 (Fig. 1), but that’s only because the current La Nina continues to cool the tropics. Global temperature is rising despite the La Nina. Earth is out of energy balance (more solar energy absorbed than heat radiated to space) by an astounding amount – more than any time with reliable data – so, within a few years, we will be setting new global temperature records.

What else is new? Hotspots are getting hotter. The major hotspot in April stretched from Iraq to India and Pakistan, and toward the northeast through Russia (Fig. 1). Temperature exceeded 45°C (113°F) in late April in at least nine Indian cities,[1] on its way to 50°C (122°F) in Pakistan in May,[2] where a laborer says “It’s like fire burning all around” and a meteorologist describing growing heatwaves since 2015 says “The intensity is increasing, and the duration is increasing, and the frequency is increasing.” Halfway around the world, Canada and north-central United States were cooler than their long-term average, but people in British Columbia and northwest United States remember being under their own record-breaking hotspot last summer.

The past season – meteorological NH winter, SH summer – was the 5th warmest Dec-Jan-Feb in the instrumental record, despite the continuing La Niña (the cold tongue in the equatorial Pacific). Most of Eurasia was remarkably warm, 2-5°C above normal. The winter seemed cold to many people in North America, but a very warm December (Fig. 1) made the season well above normal in the U.S.

There’s a new horse race in 2022. It’s one that we would rather lose than win. If our analysis is right, the world will probably blow through the 1.5°C global warming ceiling this decade; if we’re wrong, it could be delayed a decade. We argue[1],[2] that the apparent acceleration of global warming in the past decade is driven by an acceleration in the growth rate of human-made climate forcings, especially reduced human-made aerosol cooling – an effect that is not going away and may grow.

October global temperature was close to an October record for the 1880-2021 period of near-global instrumental data (Fig. 1, left), despite the cooling effect of a fairly strong, double-dip La Nina (Fig. 1, right). The October global temperature – the 4th warmest October in the period 1880-present – was +1.23°C relative to 1880-1920.

The UN Conference of the Parties (COP26) for the Framework Convention on Climate Change will be in Glasgow 1-12 November. There is a chance that Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister and meeting host, might make this COP more effective than prior COPs, as discussed below.

July global temperature (+1.16°C relative to 1880-1920 mean) was within a hair (0.02°C) of being the warmest July in the era of instrumental measurements (Fig. 1, left). That’s remarkable because we are still under the influence of a fairly strong La Nina (Fig. 1, right). Global cooling associated with La Ninas peaks five months after the La Nina peak,[1] on average.

Global temperature in June was +1.13°C (relative to the 1880-1920 base period, which is our best estimate of preindustrial temperature); it was +0.85°C relative to the 1951-1980 base period. High temperature anomalies were notable in northwest North America, northeast Siberia, and a horseshoe-shaped area covering much of Europe and western Asia (Fig. 1). The Pacific Northwest heatwave continued into July with daily temperatures exceeding prior records by several degrees, an extreme that merits discussion.

Comment représenter au mieux l’évolution climatique en cours pour favoriser la réflexion sur la menacequ’elle représente ? James Hansen et Makiko Sato (Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Nasa) viennent demodifier leur traditionnel graphique montrant la courbe des températures de la planète depuis 1880. Ils n’ont pas changé la courbe elle même, mais la période de référence et également indiqué la moyenne glissante sur les 12 derniers mois.