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| Source: Copernicus/ECMWF |
European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reported the eight warmest years on record have now occurred since 2014, with 2022 being the fifth-hottest. NASA and NOAA also issued analyses of global temperatures for 2022, and their findings were similar. NASA’s analysis ranked 2022 as tied with 2015 for the fifth warmest, while NOAA had last year as the sixth warmest.
Copernicus found that the 10-year average temperature for the period 2013-2022 is 1.14°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial baseline. NASA determined that the world is now 1.2°C (2.1°F) warmer overall than it was in the second half of the 19th century.
Copernicus scientists reported that Europe had its hottest summer ever in 2022. Separate research has shown that heat waves in Europe are increasing in frequency and intensity at a faster rate than almost anywhere else, fueled not only by warming but also by shifts in atmospheric and oceanic circulation.
Eastern and Central China, Pakistan and India all experienced lengthy and extreme heat waves in 2022, and monsoon floods in Pakistan. The heat and accompanying dryness also contributed to drought and extensive wildfires in the Western United States and now to flooding with persistent atmospheric rivers. Extreme weather events are likely to continue until humanity achieves net zero emissions.
The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the globe since 1979.
While 2022 was a La Niña year, an oceanic and atmospheric phenomenon that is the colder counterpart of El Niño, reversion to El Niño will bring stronger warming. The persistence of a cooling La Niña event, now in its third year, means that 2022 was not the warmest year on record, but is “only” the fifth or sixth warmest. "The rare event now would be to see a really cold year," said Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus service.
The World Meteorological Organization reported that the atmospheric concentration of all the main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – had reached record highs. The heating of the oceans, and the impact on extreme weather, will increase until net zero emissions are achieved.
A weird anomaly is that the Northern Hemisphere is warmer than the Southern and is warming more quickly. It is considered that the northern hemisphere has more land mass while the southern hemisphere has more ocean and therefore varies in the rate of warming. The Northern Hemisphere is warmer than the Southern Hemisphere in part because of northward cross-equatorial ocean heat transport. Of course, if the Gulf Stream is indeed slowing down, then the rate of heat exchange should also slow down.
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| | Global average temperature compared with mid-20th century
Source: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies |
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| Global annual mean temperature difference from pre-industrial conditions (1850–1900) for six global temperature data sets (1850–2022, 2022 based on an average to September). Source: WMO |
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| Globally averaged mole fraction (measure of atmospheric concentration), from 1984 to 2021, of CO2 in parts per million (left), CH4 in parts per billion (centre), and N2O in parts per billion (right). |
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