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A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 12 auguSt 2017

2016 weather report: Extreme and anything but normal

By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Last
year’s global weather
was far more extreme or
record-breaking than any-
thing approaching normal,
according to a new report.
The U.S. National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Admin-
istration on Thursday re-
leased its annual checkup
of the Earth, highlighting
numerous records includ-
ing hottest year, highest
sea level, and lowest sea
ice in the Arctic and Ant-
arctica.
The 299-page report, writ-
ten by scientists around
the world and published
in the Bulletin of the Ameri-
can Meteorological Soci-
ety, shows that 2016 was
“very extreme and it is a
cause for concern,” said
co-editor Jessica Blunden,
a NOAA climate scientist.
Researchers called it a
clear signal of human-
caused climate change.
A record large El Nino, the
warming of the central Pa- In this May 27, 2016 file photo, a street vendor drinks water on a hot afternoon on the outskirts of Jammu, India.
cific that changes weather Associated Press
worldwide, was also a big
factor in last year’s wild of key climate measures pours were up. Heat waves mal. That included Hurri- Arctic like we’ve never
weather. and found: struck all over the globe, cane Matthew that killed seen before,” said NOAA
“2016 will be forever — At any given time, including a nasty one in In- about 1,000 people in Haiti. Arctic research chief Jer-
etched in my brain as nearly one-eighth of the dia. Extreme weather con- — The world’s glaciers emy Mathis, who called
the year we crossed a world’s land mass was in tributed to a gigantic wild- shrank — for the 37th year it “a clear and more pro-
new threshold of climate severe drought. That’s far fire in Canada. in a row — by an average nounced signal of warming
change — one that gave higher than normal and — Global sea level rose of about 3 feet (1 meter). than in any other year on
us a grim glimpse into our “one of the worst years for another quarter of an inch — Greenland’s ice sheet in record.”
future,” said Georgia Tech drought,” said report co- (3.4 millimeters) for the sixth 2016 lost 341 billion tons of Many of the findings have
climate scientist Kim Cobb, author Robert Dunn of the straight year of record high ice (310 billion metric tons). been previously released,
who had no role in the re- United Kingdom Met Of- sea levels. It has lost 4400 billion tons including that 2016 was the
port. fice. — There were 93 tropical (4000 billion metric tons of hottest year on record for
Scientists examined dozens — Extreme weather was cyclones across the globe, ice since 2002. the third consecutive year.
everywhere. Giant down- 13 percent more than nor- “2016 was a year in the q