![]() ![]() The change in minimum temperatures between 20 (the last ten years that we have records for 2019 records do not exist yet) was 1.34 degrees F. Winters are warming up faster than summers. There’s another important dimension to the overall warming, which is that it’s not happening evenly over the year or over distances. Sure enough, “ extreme” heat events have come with more frequency in the past decade, and that pattern is only expected to intensify. As the average shifts upward, the likelihood of the extremely hot moments grows. The hottest hot temperatures are also creeping higher-exactly what scientists would expect. The world looked very different, and there was only a small change in average temperature. But at that time a huge ice sheet covered North America, extending as far south as Long Island. And just little shifts in the overall amount of heat stored in the oceans, air, and water can have huge effects on the planet.įor example, scientists think the planet was only about 10.8 degrees F colder (6 degrees C), on average, during the last ice age 20,000 or so years ago. Each little shift in the average increases the likelihood of extreme hot events. That number might not sound like much, but its effects are large. So far, 2019 is shaping up to be the second hottest year ever, about 1.7 degrees F (0.94 degree C) above that long-term average. On average, the annual temperatures over the years hover a little less than 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) higher now than they did from 1950 to 1980 the last five years alone was the hottest stretch ever recorded. The last decade was the hottest ever recorded, flashing a warning sign to anyone who was paying attention. “Let’s make the next one less bad.” We wrecked records large and small “God, this was a terrible decade,” says Leah Stokes, a climate policy expert at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The outcome is both straightforward-a hotter planet-and incredibly complex, as changes cascade through the oceans, atmosphere, soil, rocks, trees, and every living thing on the planet. Steadily increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, caused primarily by humans burning fossil fuels, are trapping extra heat near Earth’s surface. The underlying force beneath the changes is indisputable. Puny, unprecedentedly tiny stretches of Arctic sea ice? Check, check, check. ![]() Hottest-ever year for its oceans? Also check. Hottest-ever year for the planet’s atmosphere? Check. Wildfires tore up hundreds of thousands of acres in a flash.Ĭlimate records fell left and right. Stronger and stronger heat waves forced communities across the country and world into dangerous swelter. Hurricanes like Sandy, Maria, and Harvey fundamentally changed the communities they barreled into, leaving behind scars that have yet to heal. WEATHER UP AND DOWN 2018 SERIESThese 10 years were punctuated by a series of deadly, dramatic, devastating events. ![]()
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