Abstract
In 2016, the dominant greenhouse gases released into Earth's atmosphere-carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide-continued to increase and reach new record highs. The 3.5 ± 0.1 ppm rise in global annual mean carbon dioxide from 2015 to 2016 was the largest annual increase observed in the 58-year measurement record. The annual global average carbon dioxide concentration at Earth's surface surpassed 400 ppm (402.9 ± 0.1 ppm) for the first time in the modern atmospheric measurement record and in ice core records dating back as far as 800000 years. One of the strongest El Niño events since at least 1950 dissipated in spring, and a weak La Niña evolved later in the year. Owing at least in part to the combination of El Niño conditions early in the year and a long-term upward trend, Earth's surface observed record warmth for a third consecutive year, albeit by a much slimmer margin than by which that record was set in 2015. Above Earth's surface, the annual lower troposphere temperature was record high according to all datasets analyzed, while the lower stratospheric temperature was record low according to most of the in situ and satellite datasets. Several countries, including Mexico and India, reported record high annual temperatures while many others observed near-record highs. A week-long heat wave at the end of April over the northern and eastern Indian peninsula, with temperatures surpassing 44°C, contributed to a water crisis for 330 million people and to 300 fatalities. In the Arctic the 2016 land surface temperature was 2.0°C above the 1981-2010 average, breaking the previous record of 2007, 2011, and 2015 by 0.8°C, representing a 3.5°C increase since the record began in 1900. The increasing temperatures have led to decreasing Arctic sea ice extent and thickness. On 24 March, the sea ice extent at the end of the growth season saw its lowest maximum in the 37-year satellite record, tying with 2015 at 7.2% below the 1981-2010 average. The September 2016 Arctic sea ice minimum extent tied with 2007 for the second lowest value on record, 33% lower than the 1981-2010 average. Arctic sea ice cover remains relatively young and thin, making it vulnerable to continued extensive melt. The mass of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which has the capacity to contribute ∼7 m to sea level rise, reached a record low value. The onset of its surface melt was the second earliest, after 2012, in the 37-year satellite record. Sea surface temperature was record high at the global scale, surpassing the previous record of 2015 by about 0.01°C. The global sea surface temperature trend for the 21st centuryto-date of +0.162°C decade-1 is much higher than the longer term 1950-2016 trend of +0.100°C decade-1. Global annual mean sea level also reached a new record high, marking the sixth consecutive year of increase. Global annual ocean heat content saw a slight drop compared to the record high in 2015. Alpine glacier retreat continued around the globe, and preliminary data indicate that 2016 is the 37th consecutive year of negative annual mass balance. Across the Northern Hemisphere, snow cover for each month from February to June was among its four least extensive in the 47-year satellite record. Continuing a pattern below the surface, record high temperatures at 20-m depth were measured at all permafrost observatories on the North Slope of Alaska and at the Canadian observatory on northernmost Ellesmere Island. In the Antarctic, record low monthly surface pressures were broken at many stations, with the southern annular mode setting record high index values in March and June. Monthly high surface pressure records for August and November were set at several stations. During this period, record low daily and monthly sea ice extents were observed, with the November mean sea ice extent more than 5 standard deviations below the 1981-2010 average. These record low sea ice values contrast sharply with the record high values observed during 2012-14. Over the region, springtime Antarctic stratospheric ozone depletion was less severe relative to the 1991-2006 average, but ozone levels were still low compared to pre-1990 levels. Closer to the equator, 93 named tropical storms were observed during 2016, above the 1981-2010 average of 82, but fewer than the 101 storms recorded in 2015. Three basins-the North Atlantic, and eastern and western North Pacific-experienced above-normal activity in 2016. The Australian basin recorded its least active season since the beginning of the satellite era in 1970. Overall, four tropical cyclones reached the Saffir-Simpson category 5 intensity level. The strong El Niño at the beginning of the year that transitioned to a weak La Niña contributed to enhanced precipitation variability around the world. Wet conditions were observed throughout the year across southern South America, causing repeated heavy flooding in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Wetter-than-usual conditions were also observed for eastern Europe and central Asia, alleviating the drought conditions of 2014 and 2015 in southern Russia. In the United States, California had its first wetter-than-average year since 2012, after being plagued by drought for several years. Even so, the area covered by drought in 2016 at the global scale was among the largest in the post-1950 record. For each month, at least 12% of land surfaces experienced severe drought conditions or worse, the longest such stretch in the record. In northeastern Brazil, drought conditions were observed for the fifth consecutive year, making this the longest drought on record in the region. Dry conditions were also observed in western Bolivia and Peru; it was Bolivia's worst drought in the past 25 years. In May, with abnormally warm and dry conditions already prevailing over western Canada for about a year, the human-induced Fort McMurray wildfire burned nearly 590000 hectares and became the costliest disaster in Canadian history, with $3 billion (U.S. dollars) in insured losses.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | Si-S280 |
Journal | Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society |
Volume | 98 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 2017 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Atmospheric Science
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In: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 98, No. 8, 08.2017, p. Si-S280.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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T1 - State of the climate in 2016
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N1 - Funding Information: Chapter 4: The editors extend their thanks to the following individuals for assisting with the initial internal reviews of the Chapter. Their comments, insights, and careful editing eyes were instrumental in producing a very good chapter. • Andrew Hagen, NOAA/National Weather Service, Miami, FL • Ben Schenkel, Princeton University and NOAA/ GFDL, Princeton, NJ • Bill Ward, NOAA/National Weather Service, Honolulu, HI Chapter 5: • V. Romanovsky and coauthors of the permafrost essay (section 5i) acknowledge the support of the State of Alaska, the National Science Foundation (grants PLR-0856864 and PLR-1304271 to the University of Alaska Fairbanks; PLR-1002119 and PLR-1304555 to the George Washington Univer-sity), and by Geological Survey of Canada and Natural Resources Canada. Support was also pro-vided by the Russian Science Foundation (projects RNF 16-17-00102, 13-05-41509 RGO, 13-05-00811, 13-08-91001, 14-05-00956, 14-17-00037, and 15-55-71004) and by the government of the Rus-sian Federation. • The chapter editors thank the authors for their contributions and the reviewers for their thought-ful and constructive comments. • This publication (specifically support to J. Richter-Menge for coordination and editing) is the result in part of research sponsored by the Cooperative Institute for Alaska Research with funds from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under cooperative agreement NA13OAR4320056 with the University of Alaska. • J. Overland, lead author of the surface air tem-perature section (section 5b), was supported by the Arctic Research Project of the NOAA Climate Program Office. • M. Tedesco, lead author of the Greenland sec-tion (section 5e), acknowledges support from Funding Information: • MOVE contributions were made under award NA15OAR4320071 from the Climate Observa-tions Division, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. Previously, MOVE was funded by the German Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Grants 03F0246A and 03F0377B). MOVE data are freely available via the international OceanSITES program (http://www.oceansites.org/data/). Funding Information: • Tim Osborn received funding from UK NERC (NE/P006809/1). Funding Information: • Diego G. Miralles acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) under grant agreement 715254 (DRY–2–DRY). Funding Information: • G. Bernhard and coauthors of section 5j acknowl-edge the U.S. National Science Foundation for supporting UV measurements at Barrow and Summit, a Research Council of Norway Centres of Excellence award (Project 223268/F50) to the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, the Academy of Finland for supporting UV measure-ments through the FARPOCC, SAARA, and ILMA pilot projects, and the ESA Living Planet program for funding the ILMA project (Contract No.: 4000112796/15/I-SBo). Funding Information: • Jean-Baptiste Sallée was supported by the Eu-ropean Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement no 637770); Mike Meredith received funding from the Natural Environment Research Council via award NE/N018095/1. Funding Information: • The GFASv1.3 dataset was provided the by GFAS-CLIM project, funded by the German Bundes-ministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWi FKZ 50EE1543). Funding Information: • Jonathan Barichivich received funding from (CR)2 Chile (CONICYT/FONDAP/15110009). Funding Information: • SOCCOM is supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF Award PLR-1425989. ORCHESTRA is funded by the Natural Environ-ment Research Council, and is a joint program of the British Antarctic Survey, National Oceanogra-phy Centre, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, British Geological Survey, Sea Mammal Research Unit, Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, and the UK Met Office. The authors thank the teams of scientists from these centres that are contributing to the programs. Funding Information: the NASA Cryosphere Program, the NASA IDS program (NNX14AD98G), and the Office of Po-lar Programs at the National Science Foundation (OPP 1643187). Funding Information: Chapter 2: • The chapter editors thank David Parker, Mark McCarthy, and John Kennedy for providing de-tailed and comprehensive internal reviews of this chapter. • The chapter authors also thank Paul Berrisford (ECMWF), Mike Bosilovich (NASA) and Shinya Kobayashi (JMA) for timely provision of reanalysis data. • Robert Dunn, Rob Allan, Chris Folland, Colin Morice, and Kate Willett were supported by the Joint UK BEIS/Defra Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme (GA01101). • R. Iestyn Woolway was funded by EUSTACE (EU Surface Temperature for All Corners of Earth) which received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme for Research and Innovation, under Grant Agreement 640171. • Laura Carrea was funded by Natural Environment Research Council Globolakes project. Lake loca-tion data used for the satellite data processing were derived from the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative Land Cover Project. • Svetlana Shimaraeva, Eugene Silow, and Maxim Timofeev were supported by a Russian Ministry of education and science project 6.1387.2017 and by a private grant from “Lake Baikal” foundation (https://baikalfoundation.ru). • David Robinson acknowledges Thomas Estilow and the NOAA National Centers for Environmen-tal Information Climate Data Record Program for support. • Hyungjun Kim was supported by the Japan So-ciety for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (16H06291) for this contribution. • Research in section 2d7 was supported by grants from NASA’s GRACE and GRACE-FO Science Team. • The ESA CCI SM datasets and the authors were supported by ESA’s Climate Change Initiative for Funding Information: Macias-Fauria, M., School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom Malkova, G. V., Earth Cryosphere Institute, and Tyumen State Oil and Gas University, Tyumen, Russia Manney, G., NorthWest Research Associates, and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico Marchenko, S. S., Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska Marengo, José A., Centro Nacional de Monitoramento e Alertas aos Desastres Naturais, Cachoeira Paulista, Sao Paulo, Brazil Marra, John J., NOAA/NESDIS National Centers for Environmental Information, Honolulu, Hawaii Marszelewski, Wlodzimierz, Department of Hydrology and Water Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland Martens, B., Laboratory of Hydrology and Water Management, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium Martínez-Güingla, Rodney, Centro Internacional para la Investigación del Fenómeno de El Niño, Guayaquil, Ecuador Massom, Robert A., Australian Antarctic Division, and Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia Mathis, Jeremy T., NOAA/OAR Arctic Research Program, Silver Spring, Maryland May, Linda, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh, United Kingdom Mayer, Michael, Department of Meteorology and Geophysics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria Mazloff, Matthew, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California McBride, Charlotte, South African Weather Service, Pretoria, South Africa McCabe, M. F., Water Desalination and Reuse Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia McCarthy, Gerard, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom McCarthy, M., Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, United Kingdom McDonagh, Elaine L., National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom McGree, Simon, Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia McVicar, Tim R., CSIRO Land and Water Flagship, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Mears, Carl A., Remote Sensing Systems, Santa Rosa, California Meier, W., NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland Mekonnen, A., Department of Energy and Environmental Systems, North Carolina A & T State University, Greensboro, North Carolina Menezes, V. V. , Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts Mengistu Tsidu, G., Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Palapye, Botswana, and Department of Physics, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Menzel, W. Paul, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin Merchant, Christopher J., Department of Meteorology and National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom Meredith, Michael P., British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdom Merrifield, Mark A., Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii Minnis, Patrick, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia Miralles, Diego G., Laboratory of Hydrology and Water Management, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium Mistelbauer, T., Earth Observing Data Centre GmbH, Vienna, Austria Mitchum, Gary T., College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Florida Mitro, Srkani, Meteorological Service Suriname, Paramaribo, Suriname Monselesan, Didier, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia Montzka, Stephen A., NOAA/OAR Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado Mora, Natalie, Center for Geophysical Research and School of Physics, University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica Morice, Colin, Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, United Kingdom Morrow, Blair, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Mote, T., Department of Geography, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia Mudryk, L., Climate Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Mühle, Jens, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California Mullan, A. Brett, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Ltd., Wellington, New Zealand Müller, R., Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany Funding Information: • H. Epstein and coauthors of the tundra greenness section (section 5h) acknowledge support from the NASA Land Cover Land Use Change synthesis program (NNX14AD906). Funding Information: Soil Moisture (Contract No. 4000104814/11/I-NB and 4000112226/14/I-NB) and the European Union’s FP7 EartH2Observe “Global Earth Obser-vation for Integrated Water Resource Assessment” project (grant agreement number 331 603608). Wouter Dorigo is supported by the “TU Wien Science Award 2015”, awarded by the Vienna University of Technology. Funding Information: • Ian Harris received funding from UK National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS). Funding Information: Chapter 6: • The editors acknowledge and thank the authors for their timely contributions, with additional special thanks to the internal and external review-ers and document editors for their thoughtful and constructive comments. The editors also wish to thank Dr. Sam Batzli of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Space Science and Engineer-ing Center for generating Figure 6.1. • Sharon Stammerjohn was supported under NSF PLR 1440435; she also thanks the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, both at the University of Colorado Boulder, for institutional and data support. • Ted Scambos was supported under NASA grant NNX14AM54G and NSF ANT 0944763, the Ant-arctic Glaciological Data Center. • Linda Keller and Matthew Lazzara were supported by the Automatic Weather Station Program, National Science Foundation, ANT-1245663 and PLR-1543305. • The work of Rob Massom, Phil Reid, Jan Lieser, and Steve Rintoul was supported by the Austra-lian Government’s Cooperative Research Centre program through the Antarctic Climate & Ecosys-tems CRC, and contributes to AAS Project 4116.
PY - 2017/8
Y1 - 2017/8
N2 - In 2016, the dominant greenhouse gases released into Earth's atmosphere-carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide-continued to increase and reach new record highs. The 3.5 ± 0.1 ppm rise in global annual mean carbon dioxide from 2015 to 2016 was the largest annual increase observed in the 58-year measurement record. The annual global average carbon dioxide concentration at Earth's surface surpassed 400 ppm (402.9 ± 0.1 ppm) for the first time in the modern atmospheric measurement record and in ice core records dating back as far as 800000 years. One of the strongest El Niño events since at least 1950 dissipated in spring, and a weak La Niña evolved later in the year. Owing at least in part to the combination of El Niño conditions early in the year and a long-term upward trend, Earth's surface observed record warmth for a third consecutive year, albeit by a much slimmer margin than by which that record was set in 2015. Above Earth's surface, the annual lower troposphere temperature was record high according to all datasets analyzed, while the lower stratospheric temperature was record low according to most of the in situ and satellite datasets. Several countries, including Mexico and India, reported record high annual temperatures while many others observed near-record highs. A week-long heat wave at the end of April over the northern and eastern Indian peninsula, with temperatures surpassing 44°C, contributed to a water crisis for 330 million people and to 300 fatalities. In the Arctic the 2016 land surface temperature was 2.0°C above the 1981-2010 average, breaking the previous record of 2007, 2011, and 2015 by 0.8°C, representing a 3.5°C increase since the record began in 1900. The increasing temperatures have led to decreasing Arctic sea ice extent and thickness. On 24 March, the sea ice extent at the end of the growth season saw its lowest maximum in the 37-year satellite record, tying with 2015 at 7.2% below the 1981-2010 average. The September 2016 Arctic sea ice minimum extent tied with 2007 for the second lowest value on record, 33% lower than the 1981-2010 average. Arctic sea ice cover remains relatively young and thin, making it vulnerable to continued extensive melt. The mass of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which has the capacity to contribute ∼7 m to sea level rise, reached a record low value. The onset of its surface melt was the second earliest, after 2012, in the 37-year satellite record. Sea surface temperature was record high at the global scale, surpassing the previous record of 2015 by about 0.01°C. The global sea surface temperature trend for the 21st centuryto-date of +0.162°C decade-1 is much higher than the longer term 1950-2016 trend of +0.100°C decade-1. Global annual mean sea level also reached a new record high, marking the sixth consecutive year of increase. Global annual ocean heat content saw a slight drop compared to the record high in 2015. Alpine glacier retreat continued around the globe, and preliminary data indicate that 2016 is the 37th consecutive year of negative annual mass balance. Across the Northern Hemisphere, snow cover for each month from February to June was among its four least extensive in the 47-year satellite record. Continuing a pattern below the surface, record high temperatures at 20-m depth were measured at all permafrost observatories on the North Slope of Alaska and at the Canadian observatory on northernmost Ellesmere Island. In the Antarctic, record low monthly surface pressures were broken at many stations, with the southern annular mode setting record high index values in March and June. Monthly high surface pressure records for August and November were set at several stations. During this period, record low daily and monthly sea ice extents were observed, with the November mean sea ice extent more than 5 standard deviations below the 1981-2010 average. These record low sea ice values contrast sharply with the record high values observed during 2012-14. Over the region, springtime Antarctic stratospheric ozone depletion was less severe relative to the 1991-2006 average, but ozone levels were still low compared to pre-1990 levels. Closer to the equator, 93 named tropical storms were observed during 2016, above the 1981-2010 average of 82, but fewer than the 101 storms recorded in 2015. Three basins-the North Atlantic, and eastern and western North Pacific-experienced above-normal activity in 2016. The Australian basin recorded its least active season since the beginning of the satellite era in 1970. Overall, four tropical cyclones reached the Saffir-Simpson category 5 intensity level. The strong El Niño at the beginning of the year that transitioned to a weak La Niña contributed to enhanced precipitation variability around the world. Wet conditions were observed throughout the year across southern South America, causing repeated heavy flooding in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Wetter-than-usual conditions were also observed for eastern Europe and central Asia, alleviating the drought conditions of 2014 and 2015 in southern Russia. In the United States, California had its first wetter-than-average year since 2012, after being plagued by drought for several years. Even so, the area covered by drought in 2016 at the global scale was among the largest in the post-1950 record. For each month, at least 12% of land surfaces experienced severe drought conditions or worse, the longest such stretch in the record. In northeastern Brazil, drought conditions were observed for the fifth consecutive year, making this the longest drought on record in the region. Dry conditions were also observed in western Bolivia and Peru; it was Bolivia's worst drought in the past 25 years. In May, with abnormally warm and dry conditions already prevailing over western Canada for about a year, the human-induced Fort McMurray wildfire burned nearly 590000 hectares and became the costliest disaster in Canadian history, with $3 billion (U.S. dollars) in insured losses.
AB - In 2016, the dominant greenhouse gases released into Earth's atmosphere-carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide-continued to increase and reach new record highs. The 3.5 ± 0.1 ppm rise in global annual mean carbon dioxide from 2015 to 2016 was the largest annual increase observed in the 58-year measurement record. The annual global average carbon dioxide concentration at Earth's surface surpassed 400 ppm (402.9 ± 0.1 ppm) for the first time in the modern atmospheric measurement record and in ice core records dating back as far as 800000 years. One of the strongest El Niño events since at least 1950 dissipated in spring, and a weak La Niña evolved later in the year. Owing at least in part to the combination of El Niño conditions early in the year and a long-term upward trend, Earth's surface observed record warmth for a third consecutive year, albeit by a much slimmer margin than by which that record was set in 2015. Above Earth's surface, the annual lower troposphere temperature was record high according to all datasets analyzed, while the lower stratospheric temperature was record low according to most of the in situ and satellite datasets. Several countries, including Mexico and India, reported record high annual temperatures while many others observed near-record highs. A week-long heat wave at the end of April over the northern and eastern Indian peninsula, with temperatures surpassing 44°C, contributed to a water crisis for 330 million people and to 300 fatalities. In the Arctic the 2016 land surface temperature was 2.0°C above the 1981-2010 average, breaking the previous record of 2007, 2011, and 2015 by 0.8°C, representing a 3.5°C increase since the record began in 1900. The increasing temperatures have led to decreasing Arctic sea ice extent and thickness. On 24 March, the sea ice extent at the end of the growth season saw its lowest maximum in the 37-year satellite record, tying with 2015 at 7.2% below the 1981-2010 average. The September 2016 Arctic sea ice minimum extent tied with 2007 for the second lowest value on record, 33% lower than the 1981-2010 average. Arctic sea ice cover remains relatively young and thin, making it vulnerable to continued extensive melt. The mass of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which has the capacity to contribute ∼7 m to sea level rise, reached a record low value. The onset of its surface melt was the second earliest, after 2012, in the 37-year satellite record. Sea surface temperature was record high at the global scale, surpassing the previous record of 2015 by about 0.01°C. The global sea surface temperature trend for the 21st centuryto-date of +0.162°C decade-1 is much higher than the longer term 1950-2016 trend of +0.100°C decade-1. Global annual mean sea level also reached a new record high, marking the sixth consecutive year of increase. Global annual ocean heat content saw a slight drop compared to the record high in 2015. Alpine glacier retreat continued around the globe, and preliminary data indicate that 2016 is the 37th consecutive year of negative annual mass balance. Across the Northern Hemisphere, snow cover for each month from February to June was among its four least extensive in the 47-year satellite record. Continuing a pattern below the surface, record high temperatures at 20-m depth were measured at all permafrost observatories on the North Slope of Alaska and at the Canadian observatory on northernmost Ellesmere Island. In the Antarctic, record low monthly surface pressures were broken at many stations, with the southern annular mode setting record high index values in March and June. Monthly high surface pressure records for August and November were set at several stations. During this period, record low daily and monthly sea ice extents were observed, with the November mean sea ice extent more than 5 standard deviations below the 1981-2010 average. These record low sea ice values contrast sharply with the record high values observed during 2012-14. Over the region, springtime Antarctic stratospheric ozone depletion was less severe relative to the 1991-2006 average, but ozone levels were still low compared to pre-1990 levels. Closer to the equator, 93 named tropical storms were observed during 2016, above the 1981-2010 average of 82, but fewer than the 101 storms recorded in 2015. Three basins-the North Atlantic, and eastern and western North Pacific-experienced above-normal activity in 2016. The Australian basin recorded its least active season since the beginning of the satellite era in 1970. Overall, four tropical cyclones reached the Saffir-Simpson category 5 intensity level. The strong El Niño at the beginning of the year that transitioned to a weak La Niña contributed to enhanced precipitation variability around the world. Wet conditions were observed throughout the year across southern South America, causing repeated heavy flooding in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Wetter-than-usual conditions were also observed for eastern Europe and central Asia, alleviating the drought conditions of 2014 and 2015 in southern Russia. In the United States, California had its first wetter-than-average year since 2012, after being plagued by drought for several years. Even so, the area covered by drought in 2016 at the global scale was among the largest in the post-1950 record. For each month, at least 12% of land surfaces experienced severe drought conditions or worse, the longest such stretch in the record. In northeastern Brazil, drought conditions were observed for the fifth consecutive year, making this the longest drought on record in the region. Dry conditions were also observed in western Bolivia and Peru; it was Bolivia's worst drought in the past 25 years. In May, with abnormally warm and dry conditions already prevailing over western Canada for about a year, the human-induced Fort McMurray wildfire burned nearly 590000 hectares and became the costliest disaster in Canadian history, with $3 billion (U.S. dollars) in insured losses.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028835793&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1175/2017BAMSStateoftheClimate.1
DO - 10.1175/2017BAMSStateoftheClimate.1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85028835793
SN - 0003-0007
VL - 98
SP - Si-S280
JO - Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
JF - Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
IS - 8
ER -