At the end of meteorological year 2020 all five of the southern hemisphere stations I monitor were cooler than in 2019; Buenos Aires by 0.25°C and Rio de Janeiro by 1.26 degrees. Four of the northern stations were warmer by a large enough margin to raise the Ten Station Globe mean temperature difference by 0.16°C.

This may not seem much, but it is seven times greater than the IPCC’s annual “allowance” if earth’s mean temperature is to steadily climb to the Paris Accord projection of 1.5°C above Pre-Industrial levels by 2040.

Three years have passed since the IPCC suggested that the annual global mean temperature had risen by one degree centigrade since the First Industrial Revolution began. If one accepts a steady rise of 0.0217°C each year to 2040, the Global “target” figure a few days ago was 1.065°C. For the Ten Stations it was 1.47 degrees. By chance, the  five southern stations posted 1.465°C above P-I last year. Cooling this year has pushed this down to 0.87 degrees above P-I. The northern five have collectively warmed from 1.24 to 2.07°C above Pre-Industrial.

This results in a ten station warming rate of 19 IPCC units.

Much of the extra heat in the meteorological year just ended was generated in the Arctic. Koltsovo (Yekaterinburg) copped some of it.

NOAA informs us that 2019 was the second warmest year on record. Yesterday, BBC News said that calendar 2020 was shaping up to be the third warmest year since records began. Perhaps December is going to be extremely cold everywhere. Put several layers of masks on, folks.

Bird 91 · Dunnock