2003 World's Third Hottest Year On Record

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GENEVA (Dec. 16, 2003) - This year will be the planet's third

warmest on record, continuing a run of years with average

temperatures higher than at any time in the past millennium, the

World Meteorological Organisation said on Tuesday.

 

"Warming will continue," said Michel Jarraud, the WMO's deputy

secretary-general, who takes over the top job next month. "The

rhythm of increasing temperatures is accelerating."

 

In its annual statement on the world's climate, the WMO said the

global surface temperature in 2003 was expected to be 0.45 degrees

centigrade above the 1961-90 average used as a benchmark, just

behind 2002 (+0.48°C).

 

The warmest year recorded since instrumental measurements began in

1861 remains 1998 (0.55°C hotter than the 1961-90 average).

 

Since 1976, temperatures have been rising about three times as fast

as they did over the past 100 years as a whole, when the earth's

average temperature increased by just over 0.6°C.

 

"In the northern hemisphere, the 1990s were the warmest decade and

1998 the warmest year in the past 1,000 years," the WMO said.

 

Much of Europe experienced its hottest summer on record, which

caused more than 21,000 deaths and an estimated $10bn (?8.14bn,

£5.73bn) in damage to crops and livestock. Alpine glaciers shrank

nearly twice as fast as in 1998, reinforcing recent United Nations

warnings on the future of many Alpine ski resorts.

 

Canada, the US, China and parts of Russia also experienced near-

record temperatures in the northern summer, but northern China and

Japan were abnormally cold. In India the searing summer heat,

preceded by extreme winter cold, cost many lives.

 

Elsewhere, drought conditions persisted in Australia, parts of the

US and eastern and southern Africa but came to an end in other

areas, including Afghanistan.

 

Meanwhile, heavy monsoon rains brought flooding to much of south

Asia and China's Yellow River basin, while some parts of Africa

experienced the wettest conditions in 70 years.

 

February snowfalls and storms in the eastern US set new records and

the extent of snow cover in the northern hemisphere last winter was

the second greatest on record, reflecting high precipitation levels.

 

However, the extent of Arctic sea ice in September - at 5.4m square

kilometres - was nearly as low as the record low of 5.3m sq km in

2002, which the WMO said matched other evidence that "the Arctic

region warmed significantly in the 1990s compared with the 1980s".

 

This year has also seen more hurricanes, typhoons and tropical

cyclones than normal, mainly in the Atlantic which had 16 named

storms compared with the 1944-96 average of 9.8. This

was "consistent with a marked increase in the annual number of

tropical systems since the mid-1990s", the WMO said.

 

Scientists have predicted that global warming would lead to more,

and more intense, extreme weather events.

 

Munich Re, the reinsurer, estimated this month that weather-related

natural disasters may have caused losses of more than $60bn this

year, though this is less than in 1999 when damage reached nearly

$100bn.

 

Source: The Financial Times, "This year will be world's third

hottest on record," by Frances Williams

URL: http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?

pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1071251588403

For further information: http://www.wmo.int