June through August 2019 was the second warmest in a 140-year data set, second only to 2016. July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded worldwide.
Looking at the Northern Hemisphere, where more of Earth’s land mass and population are located, global land and ocean surface temperature for summer 2019 tied with 2016 as the warmest summer on record.
The five warmest Northern Hemisphere summers have all occurred in the last five years.
Looking at ocean-only departures from average, June, July and August 2019 also tied with 2016 as the highest such period on record. Warm ocean waters fuel tropical cyclone development and contribute to sea ice melt.
Summer 2019 Arctic ice melt was on par with 2012, which holds the record for the lowest sea ice minimum extent since satellite records began in 1979.
Polar sea ice plays a critical role in the Earth’s climate. As sea ice diminishes, more solar energy is absorbed by the ocean, which in turn contributes to a faster rate of warming in the Northern Hemisphere.
Space–based observations indicate that Arctic summer sea ice extent has decreased significantly since records began. This dramatic trend towards a smaller ice cap provides one of the clearest indications of climate change.
The music for this climate digest is arctic sea ice data set to music. As sea ice disappears, one hand dips into the lower register of a piano while the other plays a twinkling pattern that replicates repeating, shifting seasons.
The quarterly climate digest, produced seasonally, consists of a short movie (3:34 minutes) made for Science On a Sphere® (SOS) and an MP4 video accessible through YouTube.
You can download the SOS content from this FTP Site.
Content includes:
– Global 3-month land and ocean temperatures
– 3-month Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies
– Information and imagery on Hurricane Dorian
-Arctic Sea Ice graphics
-Global temperature outlook for Autumn
References:
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201908
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/201908
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/tropical-cyclones/201908
https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/34256
https://sites.uci.edu/zlabe/arctic-sea-ice-volumethickness/
http://www.judytwedt.com/
Credits:
EarthNow Team
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA)
