Further confirmation also comes from the Copernicus climate change service: 2018 was the fourth consecutive hottest year. The last 5 years have seen a 1.1°C increase in average temperature.
While some people see a snowfall as a "pause" in global warming, the data coming from scientists is unfortunately not as optimistic. According to data published by the Copernicus climate change service (C3S), the last four years have been the hottest ever recorded, with 2018 being the fourth hottest year, with temperatures not far off those of 2015. This is further confirmation of what was also reported by the Cnr-Isac just a few days ago which, in a study published in the first days of the year, states that 2018 was the hottest year in Italy since 1800 to date.
Read also: Youba Sakona, Ipcc. We are on course for a 3-degree rise in global average temperature
"2018 was also a very hot year, the fourth hottest ever recorded," says Jean-Noël Thépaut, head of the Copernicus climate change service, in a statement. "Major climate events such as the hot and dry summer across much of Europe or the rise in temperature in Arctic regions are alarming signals for all of us."
If the alarm raised by the international panel on climate change with its latest report "Global Warming of 1.5°C" — which underlines the urgency of swift, collective action within just a few years — were not enough, new data has arrived in line with previous projections from the Wmo and the Global carbon project (Gcp) for 2018, further confirming the trend: the global surface air temperature has risen by an average of 0.1°C every 5–6 years since the mid-1970s, while the last five years have been approximately 1.1°C above pre-industrial era temperatures.
According to C3S data, the most pronounced warming relative to the long-term average was recorded in the Arctic, particularly in the Bering Strait between the United States and Russia and around the Svalbard archipelago. The land areas warmest relative to the average were in particular Europe, the Middle East and the western United States. By contrast, the north-eastern part of North America and some central areas of Russia and Central Asia recorded annual temperatures below the average.
The report provided by Copernicus shows that the concentration of atmospheric CO2 is also on the rise. Indeed, the rate of growth in 2018 was higher than the previous year, with an increase of +2.5 ppm per year, reaching 406.7 ppm, another record value. It appears, however, that the year with the highest growth rate remains 2015, due to El Niño, which led to weaker-than-normal absorption of atmospheric CO2 by terrestrial vegetation and to large CO2 emissions from wildfires.
Copernicus is the Earth observation programme developed by the European Union. It offers users free access to reliable, up-to-date operational data and information services on environmental matters. It processes millions of land, marine, aerial and satellite observations every day to provide an accurate estimate of temperatures at any chosen time or location.
"We provide access to climate data for businesses and policy-makers to help them make decisions," explains Thépaut. "In the near future, the Copernicus climate change service and the Copernicus atmosphere monitoring service will play a significant role in providing information on human-caused CO2 emissions, which are fundamental to the process of implementing the Paris Agreement."