For the first time, the Metrological Office in the UK recorded an average temperature of over 10oC.
While the cold snap in December helped pull that month down towards the season average, when we look at the year as a whole, the average monthly temperature was 10.03oC, up on the previous record (set as recently as 2014) of 9.88oC.
Professor Ed Hawkins of Reading University produces a heat timeline that shows, in very dramatic fashion, how the global average temperatures map out over the last 172 years:
This graphically shows how average global temperatures have risen significantly in the last 40 or so years: that falls broadly in line with the rapid increase in man-made greenhouse gasses and energy usage. What’s even more worrying is that the stripes suggest the problem isn’t levelling off in any measurable way. For the sake of the planet, we desperately need to start addressing this pressing need.
Warming Stripes for local regions, along with sea level rise maps and other very insightful data, is all available on the Climate Lab website.