Visakhapatnam: Year 2023 has been adjudged the hottest year ever since the time record-keeping began, notes a report by the private weather website Skymet.
Earth’s average land and ocean surface temperature in 2023 was 1.36° Celsius above the 20th Century average. It beat the erstwhile warmest year 2016 by 0.15°C. Overall, Earth was about 1.36°C warmer in 2023 than in the late 19th-Century (1850-1900) pre industrial average. The last eight months in a row have exceeded the recorded global warmth. Year 2023 recorded the ‘warmest December’.
The global surface temperature was 1.43°C above the 20th-Century average. All the 10 warmest years, since 1950, have occurred in the past decade. Year 2024 also started on a warm note. Year 2024 showed the warmest January on record. Despite the triple dip La Nina between 2020 and 2022, this triplet also figures in the list of 10 warmest years.
It meant human-induced climate change neutralised the Pacific Ocean cooling on account of La Nina and still emerged winner. It could be that the other oceans around the globe were warmer than normal.
Some 90 per cent of the excess heat on the planet came from the oceans. The ocean heat content stored in the upper 2000 metres was the highest on record in 2023. The Arctic ice content was the lowest and led to insufficient cooling in the polar region.
The earth’s tropical surface and troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere, receive a major portion of the planet’s incoming solar energy. Most of the warming takes place in the middle layers of the atmosphere.
The ozone layer, which sits in the stratosphere between 15 and 30 km above the surface of the earth, plays a dominant role in the warming of the stratosphere. Ozone holes with dimensions of millions of square km, more prominently seen over the southern hemisphere (Antarctic region), are directly linked to the stratospheric temperatures.
The continuity of the ozone layer, otherwise, shields the earth and other living things from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiations. Ozone layer depletion would have serious effects on human health, the environment and warming. The ozone hole of 2023 had been larger compared to 2022.
El Nino conditions are likely to build up, coinciding with likely arrival of the southwest monsoon. This will add to the heat potential of the Pacific Ocean and overall warming, the Skymet report said.
