Climate crisis: First half of 2020 was second-warmest on record

The first half of 2020 was the second-warmest on record and the year could become the warmest in recorded history, based on reports from Nasa and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The NOAA found temperatures between January and June were 1.07C above the 20th-century average of 13.5C, only 0.05C lower than the record set in 2016.

Based on the data, the organisation calculated a 36-per-cent chance that 2020 will end up as the warmest year on record.

Europe, South America, Asia and the Gulf of Mexico experienced their warmest-ever first halves of the year. Meanwhile, the Caribbean region and Africa respectively had their second- and third-highest increase from average on record.

However, Alaska, parts of western Canada and northern India saw temperatures that were cooler than average by at least 1C.

A separate report from Nasa found temperatures in June left that month tied with the warmest June in at least 141 years of temperature records. The report found that global temperatures in June were 0.93C above the 1951-1980 average, putting in on a tie with last June.

Four of the first six months of 2020 either tied or set new records for that month, in the agency’s analysis.

Similarly, the NOAA’s analysis put June’s global temperatures on a tie with June 2015 for the third-warmest in records dating back to 1880. It said nine of the 10 warmest Junes had all occurred since 2010, with the seven warmest occurring in the last seven years.

The organisation’s statistical analysis found 2020 was “very likely” to rank in the top five warmest years on record.

Separately, data from the NOAA and Nasa was analysed by the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, which found the extent of Arctic sea ice in June 2020 to be the third-smallest for 42 years at 460,000 square miles, or 10.1 per cent below the 1981-2010 average.

The extent of Antarctic sea ice was 5.10 million square miles, slightly below the 1981-2010 average.

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