Climate crisis: First half of 2020 was second-warmest on record

June temperatures leave the month tied with the warmest in at least 141 years

Tuesday 14 July 2020 21:46

Visitors crowd together as they enjoy the hot weather on the beach on 25 June, 2020 in Bournemouth

(Getty)

The first half of 2020 was the second-warmest on record and the year could become the warmest in recorded history, based on reports from Nasa and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The NOAA found temperatures between January and June were 1.07C above the 20th-century average of 13.5C, only 0.05C lower than the record set in 2016.

Based on the data, the organisation calculated a 36-per-cent chance that 2020 will end up as the warmest year on record.

Europe, South America, Asia and the Gulf of Mexico experienced their warmest-ever first halves of the year. Meanwhile, the Caribbean region and Africa respectively had their second- and third-highest increase from average on record.

However, Alaska, parts of western Canada and northern India saw temperatures that were cooler than average by at least 1C.

A separate report from Nasa found temperatures in June left that month tied with the warmest June in at least 141 years of temperature records. The report found that global temperatures in June were 0.93C above the 1951-1980 average, putting in on a tie with last June.

Four of the first six months of 2020 either tied or set new records for that month, in the agency’s analysis.

Similarly, the NOAA’s analysis put June’s global temperatures on a tie with June 2015 for the third-warmest in records dating back to 1880. It said nine of the 10 warmest Junes had all occurred since 2010, with the seven warmest occurring in the last seven years.

The organisation’s statistical analysis found 2020 was “very likely” to rank in the top five warmest years on record.

Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures

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1/20Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures

Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures

California

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Athens, Greece

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Redding, California

Entire towns have been razed. The towns of Redding and Paradise in California were all but eliminated in the 2018 season

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Athens, Greece

While wildfires in Greece (pictured), Australia, Indonesia and many other countries have wrought chaos to infrastructure, economies and cost lives

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Carlisle, England

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Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures

Hebden Bridge, England

Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire has flooded repeatedly in the past decade, with the worst coming on Christmas Day 2015. Toby Smith of Climate Visuals, an organisation focused on improving how climate change is depicted in the media, says: "Extreme weather and flooding, has and will become more frequent due to climate change. An increase in the severity and distribution of press images, reports and media coverage across the nation has localised the issue. It has raised our emotions, perception and personalised the effects and hazards of climate change."

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Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures

Somerset, England

Out west in Somerset, floods in 2013 led to entire villages being cut off and isolated for weeks

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Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures

Dumfries, Scotland

"In summer 2012, intense rain flooded over 8000 properties. In 2013, storms and coastal surges combined catastrophically with elevated sea levels whilst December 2015, was the wettest month ever recorded. Major flooding events continued through the decade with the UK government declaring flooding as one of the nation's major threats in 2017," says Mr Smith of Climate Visuals

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London, England

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London, England

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New South Wales, Australia

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Tonle Sap, Cambodia

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Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

In reaction to these harbingers of climate obliteration, some humans have taken measures to counter the impending disaster. Ethiopia recently planted a reported 350 million trees in a single day

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Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures

Morocco

Morocco has undertaken the most ambitious solar power scheme in the world, recently completing a solar plant the size of San Francisco

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London, England

Electric cars are taking off as a viable alternative to fossil fuel burning vehicles and major cities across the world are adding charging points to accomodate

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Purmerend, The Netherlands

Cities around the world are embracing cycling too, as a clean (and healthy) mode of transport. The Netherlands continues to lead the way with bikes far outnumbering people

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Xiamen, China

Cycling infrastructure is taking over cities the world over, in the hope of reducing society's dependency on polluting vehicles

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Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures

Chennai, India

Despite positive steps being taken, humans continue to have a wildly adverse effect on the climate. There have been numerous major oil spills this decade, the most notable being the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010

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Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures

Amazon rainforest, Brazil

More recently, large swathes of the Amazon rainforest were set alight by people to clear land for agriculture

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Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures

California

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Separately, data from the NOAA and Nasa was analysed by the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, which found the extent of Arctic sea ice in June 2020 to be the third-smallest for 42 years at 460,000 square miles, or 10.1 per cent below the 1981-2010 average.

The extent of Antarctic sea ice was 5.10 million square miles, slightly below the 1981-2010 average.

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