The Met Office has circulated the latest BAMS (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society) report that warns of significant climate change recorded in 2019. The 30th edition BAMS report is peer-reviewed, with contributions from climate scientists around the world, including from the Met Office.
The most significant findings from the latest update signal that each decade since 1980 has been successively warmer than the preceding decade, with the most recent (2010-19) rising by around 0.2°C compared with the previous decade. Last year was one of the warmest years since records began in the 1800s, with only 2015 and 2016 (in some data sets) marked as warmer. All years after 2013 have been warmer than all others on record since the mid 1800s.
For the 32nd consecutive year, 2019 recorded the loss of mass from mountain glaciers around the world, and lake temperatures were above long-term average and permafrost temperatures continued to rise. In addition, the northern hemisphere growing season was eight days longer than average.
The atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases increased by the following amounts: carbon-dioxide (2.5 parts per million); nitrous-oxide (1 part per billion); and methane (9.2 parts per billion).
The report also flagged exceptional wildfire events in Australia, Amazonia, Indonesia and parts of Siberia.
The Met Office’s Robert Dunn, who leads the editor team for the Global Climate chapter in the BAMS State of the Climate report, said, “The BAMS report aims to provide an authoritative and observationally driven view of the weather and the climate each year. The view for 2019 is that climate indicators and observations show that the global climate is continuing to change rapidly.
“Global average temperature is perhaps the simplest climate indicator through which to view the changes taking place in our climate. 2019 was one of the top three warmest years in the historical record dating back to 1850. It also marks the end of a decade in which the average global temperature had risen by 0.2 °C when compared with the previous decade. And this millennium has been warmer than any comparable period since the Industrial Revolution.
“A number of extreme events, such as wildfires, heatwaves and droughts, have at least part of their root linked to the rise in global temperature. And of course the rise in global temperature is linked to another climate indicator: the ongoing rise in emissions of greenhouse gases, notably carbon-dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane.”