WMO Says Extreme Weather Conditions, Rises In Sea Level Are The 'New Normal'

Extreme weather conditions like devastating floods and powerful heat waves are currently the new normal, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The State of the Climate report for 2021 emphasizes a world that's "changing before our eyes," BBC News reported.

The two-decade average of temperature from 2002 is on course to go beyond one degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a first-time occurrence. More so, the study also indicates that the global sea levels rose to a new high this year.

The WMO is releasing the latest figures for 2021 early to coincide with the start of the UN climate conference in Glasgow dubbed as "COP26."

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More than 2,100 firefighters struggle to control the vast Bootleg Fire raging in southern Oregon, near the border with California. Some were forced to retreat as the fire spread amid the fourth intense heatwave of the summer.

Warmest Years Recorded

The State of the Climate report gives a snapshot of climate indicators which include temperatures, extreme weather conditions, ocean conditions, and rises in sea level.

The study shows that the last seven years are likely to be the warmest ever recorded as greenhouse gases reached record concentrations in the atmosphere.

The accompanying temperature rise is pushing the Earth into "uncharted territory," the report indicates, with rising effects across the planet.

According to Professor Petteri Taalas of WMO, "extreme conditions are the new norm," and there is growing scientific evidence that some of these bear the human-induced climate change's footprint.

Extreme Events

Taalas detailed some of the extreme occurrences that have been experienced all over the world in 2021. First, for the first time on record at the Greenland ice sheet's peak, it rained rather than it snowed.

Then, in Canada, there occurred a heatwave, and the adjacent parts of the United States pushed temperatures to almost 50 degrees C in a British Columbian village.

Meanwhile, Death Valley, California, as indicated in a Yale Climate Connections report, reached more than 50 degrees Celsius in one of the multiple heatwaves in the south-western US. And in the area of China, a month's equivalent of rainfall fell in the space for hours.

Rising Global Sea Levels

The WMO study indicates that another worrying development has been the rising global sea levels. Since they were initially gauged by precise satellite-based systems during the early 1990s, sea levels rose by 2.1 millimeters each year between 1993 and 2002.

However, from 2013 to 2021, the increase has more than doubled to 4.4 millimeters, mostly as an outcome of the accelerated loss of ice from ice sheets and glaciers.

Prof. Jonathan Bomber said the Bristol Glaciology Centre Director said, sea levels are rising more rapidly now compared to any other time in the past two millennia.

He added, "if we continue on our present trajectory," that increase could go beyond two meters by 2100 displacing approximately 630 million people all over the world. Such consequences, Bomber continued, "are unimaginable."

In terms of temperature, the report also shows, this year will possibly be the sixth or seventh warmest climate on record.

That's due to the early months of 2021 that were affected by a La Nina event, a weather phenomenon that's naturally occurring that's inclined to cool global temperatures.

Related information about the extreme weather condition events being the "new normal" is shown on MSNBC's YouTube video below:

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