[env-trinity] CBB: 2017 WAS THIRD WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD

Fri Aug 10 10:23:21 PDT 2018

Columbia Basin Bulletin

State Of The Climate Report: 2017 Was Third Warmest Year On Record 
Posted on Friday, August 10, 2018 (PST) 

It's official: 2017 was the third-warmest year on record for the globe,
behind 2016 (first) and 2015, according to the 28th annual State of the
Climate report. The planet also experienced record-high greenhouse gas
concentrations as well as rises in sea level.  

The annual checkup for the planet (
<https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/index.cfm/publications/bulletin-of-the-american
-meteorological-society-bams/state-of-the-climate/>
https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/index.cfm/publications/bulletin-of-the-american-
meteorological-society-bams/state-of-the-climate/) led by scientists from
NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information and published by the
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, is based on contributions
from more than 500 scientists in 65 countries and offers insight on global
climate indicators, extreme weather events and other valuable environmental
data.

Notable findings from the international report include:

-- Levels of greenhouse gases were the highest on record. Major greenhouse
gas concentrations in the atmosphere - including carbon dioxide (CO2),
methane and nitrous oxide - reached new record highs. The 2017 average
global CO2 concentration was 405 parts per million, the highest measured in
the modern 38-year global climate record and records created from ice-core
samples dating back as far as 800,000 years.

-- Sea level rise hit a new high - about 3 inches (7.7 cm) higher than the
1993 average. Global sea level is rising at an average rate of 1.2 inches
(3.1 cm) per decade.

-- Heat in the upper ocean hit a record high, reflecting the continued
accumulation of thermal energy in the uppermost 2,300 feet of the world's
oceans.

-- Global land and ocean combined surface temperature reached a near-record
high. Depending on the dataset, average global surface temperatures were
0.68-0.86 of a degree F (0.38-0.48 of a degree C) above the 1981-2010
average. This marks 2017 as having the second or third warmest annual global
temperature since records began in the mid- to late 1800s.

-- Sea surface temperatures hit a near-record high. Though the global
average sea surface temperature in 2017 was slightly below the 2016 value,
the long-term trend remained upward.

-- Drought dipped and then rebounded. The global area of drought fell
sharply in early 2017 before rising to above-average values later in the
year.

-- Arctic maximum sea ice coverage fell to a record low. The 2017 maximum
extent (coverage) of Arctic sea ice was the lowest in the 38-year record.
The September 2017 sea ice minimum was the eighth lowest on record, 25
percent smaller than the long-term average.

-- The Antarctic also saw record-low sea ice coverage, which remained well
below the 1981-2010 average. On March 1, 2017, the sea ice extent fell to
811,000 square miles (2.1 million square kilometers), the lowest observed
daily value in the continuous satellite record that began in 1978.

-- Unprecedented multiyear coral reef bleaching continued: A global coral
bleaching event spanned from June 2014 through May 2017, resulting in
unprecedented impacts on reefs. More than 95 percent of coral in some
affected reef areas died.

-- The total number of tropical cyclones were slightly above average
overall. There were 85 named tropical cyclones in 2017, slightly above the
1981-2010 average of 82 storms.

 <http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=xa-4a73074e66d2b0b0>
Bookmark and Share

Bottom of Form

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20180810/dd2e21c0/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 8928 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20180810/dd2e21c0/attachment.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 596 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20180810/dd2e21c0/attachment-0001.gif>