The preliminary data compiled by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) indicates that 2008 was the tenth warmest year on record. Besides, it witnessed a substantial erosion of the Arctic ice cover and dramatic disappearance of nearly one-quarter of the massive ancient ice shelves on Ellesmere Island.
Erratic weather-driven disasters caused huge losses of life, property and infrastructure all over the globe during the year. The mean air temperature over the sea and land surface in 2008 is reckoned at around 0.31 degrees Centigrade (C) above the annual average temperature of 14 degrees C recorded between 1961 and 1990. This makes it the tenth warmest year on record since the beginning of the instrumental climate records in 1850.
However, the 2008 temperature is deemed slightly lower than that in the previous years of the new century largely due to the cooling impact of La Nina that began towards the end of 2007 and persisted till May 2008. (La Nina is the opposite of El Nino and is characterised by cooling of the equatorial Pacific Ocean.)
Significantly, the Arctic sea ice cover in 2008 melting season dropped to its second lowest level since satellite measurements began in 1979, reaching the lowest point on 14 September, 2008, the WMO has said in its preliminary report on 2008 meteorological parameters.
The final report with updated data is likely to be brought out in March, 2009.
“A remarkable occurrence in 2008 was the dramatic disappearance of nearly one-quarter of the massive ancient ice shelves on Ellesmere Island. Ice, 70 metres thick, which a century ago covered 9,000 square kilometres, has been chiselled down to just 1,000 square kilometres today,” the WMO report stated.
It strongly reinforces the 30-year downward trend in the Arctic sea ice cover, it added.
The year was marked also by climate extremes, including devastating floods, severe and persistent droughts, snow storms, heat waves and cold waves, in many parts of the world. Europe saw above average temperatures throughout 2008. In contrast, winter was perceptibly cold in a large part of Eurasia, extending eastwards from Turkey to China.
The extreme cold weather caused hundreds of causalities in Afghanistan and China, the report points out.
In south Asia, including India and Pakistan, heavy monsoon rains and torrential downpours in other parts of the year caused flash floods, killing more than 2,600 people. Nearly 10 million people were displaced due to floods in India alone in 2008.
Heavy rainfall in April in the US, combined with melting of snow, resulted in widespread flooding that affected Missouri and southern Indiana. In June, per day rainfall records were broken in many parts of Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri.
Southern Australia experienced a record heat wave with Adelaide witnessing its longest running heat wave on record — 15 consecutive days of above 35 degrees C temperature. South-eastern Australia, on the other hand, went through a prolonged drought.
“The most dreaded tropical cyclone recorded in 2008 was Cyclone Nargis, which developed in the North Indian Ocean and hit Myanmar in early May, killing nearly 78,000 people and destroying thousands of homes.Nargis was the most devastating cyclone to hit Asia since 1991 and resulted in the worst natural disaster on record for Myanmar,” the report said.
