According to the latest report of Berkeley Earth, an US-based non-profit research organization, 2018 was the hottest year since 1850 in 29 countries located in Europe and the Middle East, including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Poland, Czechia, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Italy, San Marino, Monaco, Cyprus, Armenia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman.
As noted and experienced, the heatwave which affected Europe and the Middle East in 2018 resulted in the hottest May to October average that has been observed so far. This long period of unusual summer warmth was also accompanied by a significant drought in many areas across Europe and the Middle East. In contrast, statewide precipitation was heavy in eastern United States in 2018. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the U.S. reported that the total of U.S. precipitation in 2018 ranks 3rd wettest on record behind 1973 and 1983.
Globally, 2018 was the fourth warmest year on Earth since 1850, both Berkeley Earth and NOAA reported. It was estimated that the average temperature in 2018 was around 1.16 °C (2.09 °F) above the pre-industrial baseline (the average temperature from 1850-1900), just slightly lower than that in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Specifically, every month in 2018 was at least 0.67 °C warmer than the corresponding average from 1951-1980 or at least 1.07 °C warmer than the corresponding pre-industrial baseline (the average temperature in each month for the globe from 1850-1900).
The latest Berkeley Earth report suggested that the temperature increase caused by greenhouse gases over the globe was broadly distributed, affecting nearly all land and ocean areas. When compared to 1951-1980 averages, 85% of the Earth’s surface was significantly warmer, 13% was of a similar temperature, and only 2.4% was significantly colder. Generally, land areas show more than twice as much warming as the ocean.
The data collected by the Berkeley Earth suggested that the land average in 2018 was 1.13 ± 0.05 °C (2.03 ± 0.09 °F) higher than the average temperature during 1951-1980, while the ocean surface temperature in 2018, excluding sea ice regions, was 0.48 ± 0.06 °C (0.86 ± 0.11 °F) higher than the 1951-1980 average. In other worlds, the land average in 2018 was around 1.53 °C (2.75 °F) higher than the pre-industrial baseline (the average temperature during 1850-1900), and the ocean surface temperature was around 0.88 °C (1.58 °F) higher than the pre-industrial baseline.
The NOAA NCEI Climate also reported that 2018 was the globe’s fourth warmest year on the record from 1880-2018, and that all but one of the 10 warmest years on record were occurred after 2005. Apart from the effect of cumulative fossil CO2 emissions, rapidly increased fossil CO2 emissions in China and India in recent years may play an important role in global warming, whereas fossil CO2 emissions in USA and European Union have decreased gradually since 2007.
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