The year 2023 has shattered climate records, accompanied by extreme weather that has left a trail of devastation and despair, according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The WMO provisional State of the Global Climate report, released on the first day of the annual climate summit COP28, stated that data up to the end of October show that the year was about 1.40 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial 1850-1900 baseline.
The disparity between 2023,2016, and 2020, which were previously ranked as the warmest years, is so large that the final two months are unlikely to change the ranking.
Putting the figures for India into context, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, DirectorGeneral of Meteorology, India Meteorological Department, stated that north India has experienced a rapid rise in mercury compared to the southern parts.
“As the sea surface temperatures soar, sea water tends to expand, causing the sea level to rise. Besides, with the ocean warming, glaciers or sea ice are melting at a faster pace, which is contributing much more to sea level rise than compared with sea water expansion. This poses a potential threat to all the coastal places across the world, including India,” he said.
Warming climate, glacial melt raise flood concerns for India’s future
According to Dr. Akshay Deoras, Research Scientist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science & Dept. of Meteorology, University of Reading, UK, glacial melt is a major concern for India, affecting snow cover as well as glacier strength.
“I am afraid, persistent glacial melt could possibly trigger more events like the Sikkim floods in 2023 and the Pakistan floods in 2022 in the near future,” he said.
According to the report, the last nine years, from 2015 to 2023, have been the warmest on record.
The warming El Nino event, which emerged in the Northern Hemisphere spring of 2023 and rapidly developed during the summer, is expected to add to the heat in 2024, because El Nino has the greatest impact on global temperatures after it peaks.
Noting that El Nino is associated with decreased monsoon rainfall in Southeast Asia, the report stated that the monsoon over Kerala began seven days later than normal.
India had received 94% of its typical monsoon rainfall by the end of September, which was higher than normal rainfall totals observed along the lower course of the Indus River and in central India.
The report also revealed that the rate of sea level rise from 2013 to 2022 is more than double that of the first decade of satellite data (1993-2002) due to continued ocean warming and glacier and ice sheet melting.
According to the report, accumulated precipitation totals for the first nine months of 2023 were above the long-term average in East Asia, parts of northern Asia, and the western Indian summer monsoon region, among other places.