State of the Climate in 2016 Report

Courtesy of Reuters, Mike Hutchings
A new State of the Climate report confirmed that 2016 surpassed 2015 as the warmest year in 137 years of recordkeeping.

major indicators of climate change continued to reflect trends consistent with a warming planetLast year’s record heat resulted from the combined influence of long-term global warming and a strong El Niño early in the year. The report found that the major indicators of climate change continued to reflect trends consistent with a warming planet. Several markers such as land and ocean temperatures, sea level, and greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere broke records set just one year prior.

These key findings and others are available from the State of the Climate in 2016 report released online today by the American Meteorological Society (AMS).

The 27th annual issuance of the report, led by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, is based on contributions from nearly 500 scientists from more than 60 countries around the world and reflects tens of thousands of measurements from multiple independent datasets (highlights, full report (link is external)).

It provides a detailed update on global climate indicators, notable weather events, and other data collected by environmental monitoring stations and instruments located on land, water, ice, and in space.

The report’s climate indicators show patterns, changes, and trends of the global climate system. Examples of the indicators include various types of greenhouse gases; temperatures throughout the atmosphere, ocean, and land; cloud cover; sea level; ocean salinity; sea ice extent; and snow cover.

Report highlights include these indications of a warming planet.

Greenhouse Gases Highest on Record

Major greenhouse gas concentrations, including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide, rose to new record high values during 2016. The global annual average atmospheric CO2 concentration was 402.9 parts per million (ppm), which surpassed 400 ppm for the first time in the modern atmospheric measurement record and in ice core records dating back as far as 800,000 years. This was 3.5 ppm more than 2015, and it was the largest annual increase observed in the 58-year record.

 

Courtesy of NOAA Climate.gov, adapted from State of the Climate in 2016

Global Surface Temperature Highest on Record

Aided by the strong El Niño early in the year, the 2016 annual global surface temperature observed record warmth for a third consecutive year, with the 2016 annual global surface temperature surpassing the previous record of 2015.

 

Courtesy of NOAA Climate.gov

Global Lower Tropospheric Temperature Highest on Record

…(read more).

Download the full State of the Climate in 2016 (link is external) report from BAMS

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/reporting-state-climate-2016

BAMS State of the Climate in 2016 Report

The State of the Climate in 2016 report is a suppl

ement to the August 2017 issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (link is external) (BAMS Vol. 98, No. 8).

Download the full State of the Climate in 2016 (link is external) report from BAMS.

Supplemental and Summary Materials

The following materials supplement and summarize the report and can help you further explore the report’s findings and details.

• NOAA Media Highlights
  On August 2, 2016, NOAA issued this document in conjunction with the report’s release.
• Media Briefing Slides
  Download the slides used in media briefings associated with the report’s release.
• Highlights Materials
  NOAA’s Climate.gov team created these highlights, which primarily draw upon the report’s contents but also utilize other sources to provide additional details.

How to Cite This Report

• Citing the Complete Report
  Blunden, J. and D. S. Arndt, Eds., 2017: State of the Climate in 2016. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 98 (8), Si–S277, doi:10.1175/2017BAMSStateoftheClimate.1.
• Example of Citing a Chapter
  Diamond, H. J. and C. J. Schreck III, Eds., 2017: The Tropics [in “State of the Climate in
  2016”]. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 98 (8), S93–S128, doi:10.1175/2017BAMSStateoftheClimate.1.
• Example of Citing a Section
  Bell, G., M. L’Heureux, and M. S. Halpert, 2017: ENSO and the tropical Pacific [in “State of the
  Climate in 2016”]. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 98 (8), S93–S98, doi:10.1175 /2017BAMSStateoftheClimate.1.

See report on AMS website.

 

• State of the Climate 2016 – American Meteorological Society August 11, 2017