AFP Yahoo News 25 Jan 19;
Washington (AFP) - The last four years have been the world's hottest since record-keeping began, with 2018 the fourth warmest on record, according to data published Thursday by US research group Berkeley Earth.
Temperatures in 2018 were around 1.16 degrees Celsius (2.09 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average temperature of the second half of the 19th century, from 1850-1900, often used as a pre-industrial baseline for global temperature targets.
"Global mean temperature in 2018 was colder than 2015, 2016, and 2017, but warmer than every previously observed year prior to 2015," the report said.
"Consequently, 2016 remains the warmest year in the period of historical observations. The slight decline in 2018 is likely to reflect short-term natural variability, but the overall pattern remains consistent with a long-term trend towards global warming."
The US government normally conducts a similar analysis, but the partial shutdown of operations over a budgetary impasse has put a hold on it for now.
The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service published its own data on January 7 that also found 2015-2018 to be the hottest years on record.
High heat but no record: 2018 was 4th warmest year on Earth
SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press Yahoo News 25 Jan 19;
WASHINGTON (AP) — While Earth was a tad cooler last year than the last couple of years, it still was the fourth warmest on record, a new analysis shows.
With the partial U.S. government shutdown, federal agency calculations for last year's temperatures are delayed. But independent scientists at Berkeley Earth calculate that last year's average temperature was 58.93 degrees (14.96 degrees Celsius).
That's 1.39 degrees (0.77 degrees Celsius) warmer than the average from 1951 to 1980 and about 2.09 degrees (1.16 degrees Celsius) warmer than pre-industrial times.
It's likely other temperature measuring groups will agree on 2018's ranking since they had it at fourth hottest through November, said Berkeley Earth climate scientist Zeke Hausfather. The Japanese Meteorological Agency has already calculated it at fourth. Record-keeping started in 1850.
Only 2016, 2017 and 2015 were warmer than last year, with only small differences among them. That was mostly because of natural yearly weather variations like El Nino and La Nina, Hausfather said. He said it would be foolish to call last year's slight dip a cooling trend.
"The long term is stunningly clear," he said.
Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann, who wasn't part of the Berkeley Earth team, said the fact that nearly every year recently is in the top five or top 10 hottest years is "clear evidence of human-caused warming on this planet."
Last year, 29 countries, including much of Central Europe, and Antarctica had record hot years, Hausfather said.
