• Research: The rise in temperatures in the oceans sets a new record in 2019
  • Climate crisis: The decade of extreme weather events

The year 2019 has registered a temperature of 0.95ºC above the average of the century, a figure that confirms the upward trend by converting both the last five years and the last decade into the hottest since they have homologated data, 140 years ago .

2019 has also been the second warmest year since 1880. The record continues to show another recent year, 2016, so experts are clear that we are facing a persistent trend, linked to emissions of polluting gases.

"The growth rates of greenhouse gases that drive global warming are increasing, not decreasing," concludes a new report from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies .

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) has also participated, independently, in the collection and analysis of the annual data just presented, and its conclusions are similar. In fact, 2019 has been the hottest year in the oceans since there is data.

"It is not a coincidence caused by some weather phenomenon," said Gavin Schmitd, director of the Goddard Institute and one of the authors of the NASA report, whose first signatory is the pioneer of the weather James Hansen .

According to the results presented on Wednesday by the two agencies, both dependent on the US Government, the average global surface temperature is now 1.1ºC higher than it was at the end of the 19th century.

"The decade that has just ended is clearly the hottest on the record," Schmidt said. "Every decade since the 60s has been hotter than the last," he added.

The data, collected in more than 20,000 locations throughout the world, take as reference to establish records and trends records obtained since 1880. Before that date, there are no homologous records, although it is estimated that, for example, in the last Age of Ice the Earth's temperature was around 12ºC lower than what it was when the industrial era began.

The increase in temperatures contributes, as recalled by NASA, to the loss of ice sheet mass in both Greenland and Antarctica. In the latter region, moreover, warming since 1970 has been three times faster than in the rest of the planet.

43 years in a row over the average

According to scientists, the warming observed in recent decades far exceeds what could have occurred as a result of the natural variability of the oceans and the atmosphere. In fact, 2019 has been the 43rd consecutive year above the average nominal temperatures. That is, the average before no longer represents the current normal .

For the middle of the century, the reference is the temperature observed between 1951 and 1980. NASA estimates that the data in the new report is 95% reliable. Each of the two agencies makes its own measurements, so there are small differences between the data of one and the other, although both clearly show the same trend.

The US agencies report comes just two days after a study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences reflected a new record in ocean temperatures during 2019, a peak that NOAA data has now confirmed.

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