It's Official: Last 9 Years Are Now Among 10 Hottest Ever Recorded

According to an annual report a US agency released Thursday, the nine years of the past three years are among the 10 hottest on record.

The average temperature across global surfaces was 1.51 degrees Fahrenheit (0.84 degrees Celsius) above the 20th century average, making the year the sixth-hottest in the overall record.

"Of course, all this is driven by increasing concentrations of heat trapping gases like carbon dioxide," Russell Vose, a senior climatologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told reporters.

There is a chance that it will rank in the top 10, a chance that it will rank in the top five, and a chance that it will rank first.

The hottest day on record in Australia was on Thursday in the coastal town of Onslow, where the mercury hit a sizzling 123.3F (50.7C).

The 21-year span from 1880 to 1900 was used by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration to assess pre-industrial conditions.

The data from the NCEI is used by the Climate.gov.

The sixth-warmest on record had been tied with 2021.

The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service had the year of 2021 as the fifth warmest on record.

The overall convergence of trends increases scientists' confidence in their conclusions.

Human activity is the main cause of the observed increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases.

Climate scientists say it is crucial to hold end-of-century warming to within a 1.5C rise to avert the worst impacts, from mega-storms to mass die-offs in coral reefs and the decimation of coastal communities.

The planet could hit 1.5C in the next 15 years.

"But it's not the case that at 1.4 everything is hunky dory and at 1.6 all hell has broken loose", said NASA climate expert.

In the past few years, the impacts have included record-breaking wildfires across Australia and Siberia, a once-in-1,000-years heatwave in North America, and massive flooding in Asia, Africa, the US and Europe.

Last year saw 700 people die in the contiguous United States due to extreme weather events such as Hurricane Ida and a European record temperature in Sicily.

The year began in a cold phase thanks to an El Nio Southern Oscillation, but the heat records came despite that.

During the COVID related lockdowns of 2020, activities that created heat-reflecting aerosols were lower than they were in the past.

The land surface temperature in the Northern Hemisphere was the third highest on record. The surface temperature of the Southern Hemisphere in 2021 was the ninth highest on record.

Land heat records were broken in northern Africa, southern Asia, and southern South America, while sea surface temperatures were observed across parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

There were no cold records for the ocean.

The average annual snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere was the seventh smallest in the history of the record.

Each month of the year, the sea ice levels in the top 10 lowest levels were found in September and December.

The effect of the warming of the northern part of the planet is three times faster than the global average.

Agence France-Presse.