In The Times today: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/greenhouse-gases-blamed-for-warmest-years-on-record-dntqcgz58

This year is very likely to be one of the three hottest years on record despite the absence of a cyclical warming pattern, according to the UN’s weather and climate agency.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said 2013-2017 was set to be the warmest five-year period on record and there was clear evidence that manmade greenhouse gas emissions were to blame. It is the warmest five year period in records going back to 1850.

Last year is likely to remain the warmest year on record, with the temperature boosted partly by the El Niño natural weather phenomenon which has now faded. The WMO said 2017 was set to be the warmest year on record without an El Niño influence.

The average global temperature from January to September 2017 was approximately 1.1°C above the pre-industrial era, meaning this year is on course to be second or third warmest. The second warmest year on record is 2015.

The WMO issued its annual State of the Global Climate statement to coincide with the opening of the UN’s annual two-week climate change meeting, which this year takes place in Bonn.

Petteri Taalas, the WMO secretary-general, said: “The past three years have all been in the top three years in terms of temperature records. This is part of a long-term warming trend.

“We have witnessed extraordinary weather, including temperatures topping 50 degrees Celsius in Asia, record-breaking hurricanes in rapid succession in the Caribbean and Atlantic reaching as far as Ireland, devastating monsoon flooding affecting many millions of people and a relentless drought in East Africa.

“Many of these events – and detailed scientific studies will determine exactly how many – bear the tell-tale sign of climate change caused by increased greenhouse gas concentrations from human activities,” he said.

The WMO said the warmth had contributed this year to many “high-impact events including catastrophic hurricanes and floods, debilitating heatwaves and drought”.

It was the first time two Category 4 hurricanes (Harvey and Irma) had made landfall in the same year in the US, it said.

Exceptionally heavy rain triggered a landslide in Freetown, Sierra Leone in August, killing more than 500 people.

Many parts of the Indian subcontinent were affected by monsoonal flooding, with more than 1,200 deaths reported in India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Parts of east Africa continued to be seriously affected by drought. In Somalia, more than half of the cropland was affected by drought, with livestock herds reduced by 40 to 60 per cent since December 2016.

Arctic sea-ice extent was well below average throughout 2017 and was at record-low levels for the first four months of the year, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre.

Richard Allan, Professor of Climate Science at the University of Reading, said: “This year saw a multitude of damaging weather extremes, which is not uncommon, but many of these events were made more severe by the sustained warming influence of increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas levels due to human activities.

“An increased severity of weather extremes is expected in the decades ahead as Earth continues to heat up and it is only with the substantive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions required by the Paris climate agreement that we can avert much more potent and widespread damage to our societies and the ecosystems upon which they depend.”

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In an article of the Montreal French News Website (lapresse.ca) "La Presse" today, the Canada government, through the National Research Council (CNRC), wants to revise the national building and infrastructure codes to adapt to climate change. The article goes on to state that in order to do so, the CNRC needs to know what to expect. They will work with Environment Canada (Canada's Met Office) and the government's Environment and Climate Change Department to find information on the impact of rising temperatures from 0,5C to 5,0C.

Sounds like possible future opportunities for CPDN?

They have issued a "Request for Proposal" on November 6 to find a consultant to modernise the National Building Code through the update of climate data throughout the country. Not a small job though a fascinating one!

There’s a growing body of evidence linking migration and climate change, from Pacific island nations being subsumed by the rising ocean, to the drought-wracked Horn of Africa. In a speech this spring, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “as regions become unlivable, more and more people will be forced to move from degraded lands to cities and to other nations.”

A recent report from Oxfam found that more than 20 million people a year have been displaced by extreme weather events since 2008, mostly in developing countries.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/11/21/did-donald-trumps-ancestors-migrate-to-america-because-of-a-changing-climate/

Warmer means Colder

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-26/u-s-is-about-to-get-real-cold-again-blame-it-on-global-warming

This article states the jet stream is moving more north and south than anytime in the last 300 years.

The concept of a "jet stream" was proposed as early as 1920 by scientists in Japan but the existence of the jet-stream wasn't confirmed until late in World War II by Allied bomber pilots.

Has weather-science advanced to the point we know the path the jet stream took for the last 300 years when its existence wasn't even confirmed until 1945?

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Blame the Jet Stream for Frigid Winters in Eastern U.S.

Frigid Winter? Blame 4,000 Years of Wild Jet Streams

By 2050, 140 million people could be forced to migrate internally as the effects of global warming exacerbate problems like water scarcity, crop failure, rising sea levels and storm surges, according to a new report.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/climate-change-could-force-millions-035222309.html

A Minimum Temperature of 42.6 °C (108.7 °F) in Oman on June 26, 2018: a New World Record

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Minimum-Temperature-426-C-1087-F-Oman-June-26-2018-New-World-Record

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Europe heatwave: Spain and Portugal struggle in 40C+ temperatures

Temperatures reached 46C (115F) in places, close to Portugal's national record of 47.4C (117.3F).

Climate change: 'Hothouse Earth' risks even if CO2 emissions slashed

Researchers believe we could soon cross a threshold leading to boiling hot temperatures and towering seas in the centuries to come.

Even if countries succeed in meeting their CO2 targets, we could still lurch on to this "irreversible pathway".

Their study shows it could happen if global temperatures rise by 2 deg C.

...

Others are concerned that the authors' faith in humanity to grasp the serious nature of the problem is misplaced.

"Given the evidence of human history, this would seem a naive hope," said Prof Chris Rapley, from University College London.

"At a time of the widespread rise of right-wing populism, with its associated rejection of the messages of those perceived as 'cosmopolitan elites' and specific denial of climate change as an issue, the likelihood that the combination of factors necessary to allow humanity to navigate the planet to an acceptable 'intermediate state' must surely be close to zero."

'Climate change moving faster than we are,' says UN Secretary General

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that if the world doesn't change course by 2020, we run the risk of runaway climate change.

Mr Guterres painted a grim picture of the impacts of climate change that he says have been felt all over the world this year, with heatwaves, wildfires, storms and floods leaving a trail of destruction.

Corals are dying, he said, the oceans are becoming more acidic, and there are growing conflicts over dwindling resources.

Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are at their highest level in three million years.

And the EPA are just about to reduce the required monitoring and repair of methane leaks.

And the EPA are just about to reduce the required monitoring and repair of methane leaks.

Of course. According to our beloved President, climate change is nothing but a hoax created by the Chinese.

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I am not sure but I suspect someone has done a correlation between (ocean) temperature and frequency and strength of hurricanes - but I guess it would be put down as fake news.

I am not sure but I suspect someone has done a correlation between (ocean) temperature and frequency and strength of hurricanes - but I guess it would be put down as fake news.

The GDFL provides statistical information on the relationships between SSTs and Atlantic hurricanes:
https://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/global-warming-and-hurricanes/

The US EPA Climate Change Indicators: Tropical Cyclone Activity. Figure 3 represents the power dissipation index (PDI):
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-tropical-cyclone-activity

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Sadly a journalist has died in the attempt to preserve an ancient forest in Germany/Austria. https://enoughisenough14.org/2018/09/19/man-fell-from-tree-and-died-activists-demand-immediate-stop-of-police-operation-in-hambacherforest/

In the scientists corner:
IPCC issues dire climate warning, says coal must go to save Great Barrier Reef

In the politicians corner:
Climate change: Environment Minister rejects top scientists' advice on phasing out coal, after UN's warning

Sigh

Climate change: Oceans 'soaking up more heat than estimated'

According to the last major assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world's oceans have taken up over 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases.

But this new study says that every year, for the past 25 years, we have put about 150 times the amount of energy used to generate electricity globally into the seas - 60% more than previous estimates.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/02/world-verge-climate-catastophe?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR1YPzXRiNviZyx-q7b771UMyFHKe3IdJUO5Ma1Vxws7DQ4JZrqxDnvZmOc

Waiting to see what comes out of the climate conference and more to the point what governments do after their fine words if any.

Cars and coal help drive 'strong' CO2 rise in 2018

The main factor in the near 3% rise has been coal use in China, driven by government efforts to boost a flagging economy.

But emissions from cars, truck and planes using fossil fuels continue to rise in all parts of the world