GENEVA: With months of investigation on the weather in 2022, the World Meteorological Organization concluded that last year was as severe as it looked at the time.
And that’s about it until additional warmth kicks in.
Killer floods, droughts, and heat waves wreaked havoc on the globe, costing billions of dollars. According to the United Nations’ climate agency’s State of Global Climate 2022 report, global ocean heat and acidity levels reached record highs, while Antarctic Sea ice and European Alps glaciers achieved record lows.
While levels were higher before human civilisation, global sea level and quantities of heat-trapping carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere reached their greatest modern recorded levels. The world’s key glaciers fell by more than 1.3 meters (51 inches) in only one year, and for the first time in history, no snow survived the summer melt season on Switzerland’s glaciers, according to the report.
WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas stated during a press conference that sea level is presently rising at roughly twice the rate it did in the 1990s. According to him, oceans might rise another half meter to a meter (20 to 39 inches) by the end of the century as more ice melts from ice sheets and glaciers and warmer water expands.
“Unfortunately, these negative trends in weather patterns and all of these parameters may continue until the 2060s,” Taalas added, despite attempts to minimize heat-trapping gas emissions due to pollution already emitted. “We’ve already lost the game of glacier melting and sea-level rise.” That’s unfortunate.”
Last year was close to, but not quite, the hottest year on record, placing fifth or sixth in terms of temperature, depending on the method of measurement used. However, the last eight years have been the hottest on record globally. Despite a remarkable third year of La Nina, a natural temporary cooling of regions of the Pacific Ocean that affects weather worldwide, the world remained warm.
The United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and New Zealand all enjoyed record-breaking temperatures.
Global temperature and weather records date back to 1850.
“In 2022, continuous drought in East Africa, record-breaking rainfall in Pakistan, and record-breaking heat waves in China and Europe affected tens of millions, drove food insecurity, boosted mass migration, and cost billions of dollars in loss and damage,” Taalas explained.
According to the 55-page assessment, China’s heat wave was the longest and most widespread in the country’s history, with its summer not only being the hottest on record but breaking it by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit).
According to the research, Africa’s drought affected more than 1.7 million people in Somalia and Ethiopia, while Pakistan’s disastrous flooding displaced almost 8 million people, putting one-third of the country under water at one point.
