The heat continues to rise, climate scientists say

Margaret Munro
POSTMEDIA NEWS

Canada had its hottest year on record in 2010, which is on track to become among the three hottest years worldwide.

The World Meteorological Organization reported Dec. 2 at the UN climate talks in Cancun that despite the snowstorms lashing some parts of the world this week, the planet continues on a warming trend linked to the ever-increasing emission of heat-trapping greenhouse gases wafting into the atmosphere.

“The year 2010 is almost certain to rank in the top 3 warmest years since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850,” reported the WMO, noting Canada was one of several countries hit by “extreme warm anomalies.”

David Phillips a senior climatologist with Environment Canada who contributed to the WMO report, said there is little question that it’s been a record-breaking year.

“It’s a done deal,” Phillips said, in predicting that 2010 “will clearly come out to be the warmest year on record in Canada.”

Not only did 2010 have the warmest Canadian winter and spring on the record books — going back 63 years in this country — but Phillips said the sea-ice retreat last spring and summer shattered records in Canada’s Arctic and Maritime regions.

“In Canada, we’ve come through quite an unprecedented year, quite remarkable,” said Phillips, who is confident his prediction will hold even though there’s still a month to go.

He called the “back-to-back” warmest winter and warmest spring “extraordinary.”

Temperatures were six degrees above normal in some parts of the North last winter, and the average temperature across Canada was 4.1 degrees warmer than normal in the spring.

“Never have we seen such a large positive anomaly,” said Phillips.

Things did cool down in the summer, which was the third warmest on record.

And the fall — which officially ended Nov. 30 by Environment Canada standards — was at the second warmest.

The WMO reports said the most extreme temperature anomalies were in Canada, Greenland and across northern Africa and Asia.