The world has warmed faster in the last decade than any other, as the 2001-2010 period brought “unprecedented” climate extremes and high-impact weather events around the world, according to a new report by the World Meteorological Organization released July 3.

The report, titled “The Global Climate 2001-2010, A Decade of Climate Extremes,” found that every year of the past decade except 2008 was among the 10 warmest years on record, a period when deaths from heat jumped by more than 2,000 percent over the previous decade.

More than 90 percent of the countries in the WMO survey reported their warmest decade in 2001-2010, while sea level rise accelerated to a worldwide average of about 3 millimeters per year, roughly double the average annual rise of 1.6 millimeters in the 20th century.

Both hemispheres saw their warmest land and ocean temperatures, a period that also saw the rapid decline of Arctic sea ice and the accelerating retreat of mountain glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

Noting that a decade is the “minimum possible timeframe for meaningful assessments of climate change,” WMO Secretary General Michel Jarraud said the report shows that global warming was “unprecedented” in the periods between 1991-2000 and 2001-2010.

“Rising concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are changing our climate, with far reaching implications for our environment and our oceans, which are absorbing both carbon dioxide and heat,” Jarraud added.

“Natural climate variability, caused in part by interactions between our atmosphere and oceans – as evidenced by El Niño and La Niña events – means that some years are cooler than others” Jarraud said. “On an annual basis, the global temperature curve is not a smooth one. On a long-term basis the underlying trend is clearly in an upward direction, more so in recent times.”

The report focuses on:

Temperatures: Between 2001 and 2010, above-average temperatures were observed in most parts of the world. About 44 percent of countries in the WMO survey reported their hottest nationwide temperatures on record; between 1991 and 2000, only 24 percent did.

The average global temperature rose by 0.17°C during the decade, more than twice the average increase of 0.062°C per decade for the 130 years between 1880 and 2010.

Floods and precipitation: The year 2010 was the world’s wettest since modern weather measurements began, while the full decade was the world’s second-wettest since 1901. Most parts of the world experienced above-normal precipitation, while droughts also occurred worldwide, with notably severe droughts in Australia (2002), Africa (2004 and 2005), and South America’s Amazon Basin.

Tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms): During the last decade, nearly 170,000 people were killed in 511 tropical cyclone-related weather events, a period that was the most active in the North Atlantic Basin since 1855. An average of 15 named storms formed each year between 2001 and 2010, compared to the long-term average of 12 named storms per year.

Weather impacts: The loss of more than 370,000 people can be attributed to extreme weather and climate events around the world between 2001 and 2010, the report adds, including extreme heat and cold spells, drought, severe storms and flooding events.

The number of deaths is 20 percent higher than the previous decade, largely due to heat waves in Europe and Russia (in 2003 and 2010, respectively), which spiked the number of heat-related deaths from 6,000 worldwide in 1991-2000 to about 136,000 in 2001-2010.

Read the full report here.

 

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