London: Assuring that 2016 will be the warmest year on record, new data released by NASA showed last month was the hottest April the planet has experienced in modern times.
The new record broke the previous one by 0.24C, which was set in 2010, at 0.87C above the baseline average for April. That record itself broke one set three years earlier at 0.75C above the baseline average for April.
The information showed that April 2016 was the third month in a row to break the monthly record by the largest margin ever and the seventh month in a row to be at least 1C above the 1951-80 mean for that month, the Guardian reported.
The global temperature of land and sea was found to be 1.11C warmer in April than the average temperature for April during the period 1951-1980.
The new record broke the previous one by 0.24C, which was set in 2010, at 0.87C above the baseline average for April. That record itself broke one set three years earlier at 0.75C above the baseline average for April.
Andy Pitman from the University of New South Wales said: "The interesting thing is the scale at which we're breaking records. It's clearly all heading in the wrong direction."
He added, "Climate scientists have been warning about this since at least the 1980s. And it's been bloody obvious since the 2000s. So where's the surprise?"
Pitmans said the recent figures put the recent goal agreed in Paris of just 1.5C warming in doubt. "The 1.5C target, it's wishful thinking. I don't know if you'd get 1.5C if you stopped emissions today. There's inertia in the system. It's putting intense pressure on 2C," he said.
The figures released over the weekend make it all but assures that 2016 will be the warmest year on record and probably by the largest margin ever.
(With ANI inputs)
