What We Learned About the Climate in the Hottest Year

In many ways, climate change this year was no different to all the other years since the turn of the century. Early data from the World Meteorological Organization shows global temperatures to be simmering away at 1.2° C (2.2° F) above pre-industrial levels, on track to make 2016 the hottest on record. If that phrase sounds familiar, it is because it would mean 16 of the 17 hottest years recorded have occurred since 2000, the other being 1998. But the year threw up plenty of surprises too, an Arctic heatwave, massive coral bleaching and the election of a certain unpredictable leader, just to name a few. Here's a look at the key events to shape the year in climate science, and what they might mean as we sweat into 2017 and beyond.

Let's take it from the top, that freezing, hostile place that Santa calls home. About midway through the year, NASA scientists studying Arctic sea ice found that it was melting at a record-breaking rate, with levels declining by about 13.4 percent per decade. Its total coverage at the height of the melting season in September is now 40 percent less than in the late 1970s.

http://newatlas.com/climate-science-2016-review/47150/

Ocean Biology Processing Group at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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