Last month hottest March ever recorded

Last month was the hottest March ever recorded and and the eleventh consecutive month during which such a record was beaten, a temperature sequence never before seen in 137 years of keeping records.
So indicated meteorologists earlier this week.

The average global temperature on the planet's surface in March 2016 was “the highest for the month of March in statistical yearbooks on global temperature of NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration),” it states in a report. The latter has kept records since 1880.

Average global temperature in March was 12.7 degrees Celsius, or 1.22°C higher than the 20th century average. “This exceeded the previous record established in March 2015 of 0.32°C,” adds the NOAA, stating that this difference of 1.22°C is the most significant anomaly, compared to the average of more than the 1,600 months measured since 1880.

These recent temperature records illustrate the continuing acceleration of global warming. The temperature levels were thus beaten and, there was a new record in 2015 by far, exceeding that of 2014. This is a phenomenon which climatologists attribute to the accumulation in the atmosphere of greenhouse gases coming from burning oil and coal.

Since 1997, the first year to have witnessed a record temperature increase throughout the planet, 16 of the 18 following years were then warmer, says the NOAA.

"Overall, the nine months with the most significant temperature increases compared to the twentieth century have all occurred in the last nine months," the American agency observes.

World leaders agreed in December, during the UN climate conference (the so-called COP21) in Paris, to take measures aiming to contain the temperature increases within 2°C, when compared to the pre-industrial era.

(Source: Belga)


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