Global Courant
TOKYO — Japan experienced its warmest spring on record this year, the national weather bureau said Thursday, as greenhouse gases and El Nino combine to spike global temperatures.
Temperatures in March, April and May were 1.59°C higher than the average for the same three-month period over the past 30 years, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
That’s the largest gap since the agency began taking similar measurements in 1898.
“As global warming continues, such record high temperatures are becoming more common,” he said.
Average sea surface temperatures for waters around Japan during the same spring months were the third highest since 1982, the agency said.
The United Nations said last month that it is almost certain that 2023-2027 will be the warmest five-year period on record.
This is partly due to the growing likelihood that the El Nino weather phenomenon will develop in the coming months, leading to higher global temperatures and possibly new heat records.
El Nino, a naturally occurring climate pattern typically associated with increased global heat, as well as drought in some parts of the world and heavy rainfall elsewhere, last occurred in 2018-2019.
According to the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO), there is also a two-thirds chance that in at least one of the next five years, global temperatures will exceed the more ambitious target set in the Paris agreements on limiting of climate change.
In the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries agreed to limit global warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius above the average level measured between 1850 and 1900 — and 1.5 °C if possible.
The global average temperature in 2022 was 1.15 degrees Celsius above the average of 1850-1900.
On Monday, Shanghai recorded its warmest May day in more than 100 years, breaking its previous high by a full degree. AFP
