Report confirms 2016 was hottest on Earth—3rd record-breaker in a row

Romeo Ranoco | Reuters

A father with his children walk over the cracked soil of a 1.5 hectare dried up fishery at the Novaleta town in Cavite province, south of Manila. The drought-inducing El Nino weather phenomenon continue to affect farmlands in the provinces resulting to more damaged crops.

“Several countries, including Mexico and India, reported record high annual temperatures while many others observed near-record highs,” the report said.

Every month, at least 12 percent of land surfaces were in severe drought conditions or worse — a record long stretch.

At the same time, the transition from one of the strongest El Nino patterns since at least 1950 led to wet conditions in many parts of the world, especially in parts of Europe, Asia, and South America.

Greenhouse gas concentrations, including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide rose to new record highs — the carbon dioxide concentration hit 402.9 parts per million, surpassing 400 parts per million for the first time in both the modern atmospheric record and in data from ice cores stretching back 800,000 years.

In what may be good news, ozone levels in the upper stratosphere have been increasing 2-4 percent every decade, since the late 1990s, which means the ozone layer may be recovering.