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The year 2020 will be one of the three warmest in more than a century and a half of scientific measurement of temperatures, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned this Wednesday, which also warned of an unprecedented increase in thaw in the Arctic.

The global average temperature, according to the agency's calculations, will be up to 1.2 degrees Celsius higher in 2020 than pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), a figure similar to 2019 and only surpassed by 2016, the hottest year in the world. history, in which the El Niño phenomenon contributed to a rise in temperatures.

The data also confirm the 2011-2020 decade as the warmest on record.

The figures are published in the WMO preliminary report on the state of the climate in 2020, although the final results will be known in March, when it will be confirmed whether this year was the second or third warmest in modern history, as currently it is practically tied with 2019.

The role of La Niña

The high average temperature in 2020 was registered despite the fact that this year the La Niña phenomenon occurred, which usually leads to a cooling of temperatures, and despite the fact that the covid-19 pandemic had among its consequences a strong reduction in traffic air, a sector with high emission of greenhouse gases.

The region where global warming was most evident in 2020 was North Asia, in particular the Siberian Arctic, where average temperatures were more than five degrees higher than the average recorded between 1981 and 2010.

An example of this was that on June 20, the highest temperature in history in the Arctic Circle, 38 degrees, was recorded in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk, one of the coldest places in the world, a situation that contributed to Siberia suffered the worst forest fires in 18 years.

The WMO also warned that, while Antarctic ice remained stable, the Arctic ice reached its second lowest value in 42 years, with an icy mass of 152 billion tonnes lost in Greenland alone.

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