Posted on December, 08 2005

In terms of climate change, 2005 is a year for the record books with big happenings all around the globe. Record heat might have made this year the hottest ever, as 2005 is on track to be the warmest year on record, surpassing the record set in the 1998 El Niño year. By October of this year, NASA reported that the global average temperature was already ~0.06ºC warmer than 1998.

Least icy Arctic ever & hottest Caribbean waters

In September of 2005, the Arctic sea ice extent (area covered) was the least ever recorded by satellites. The present decline makes the current sea ice extent about 1.3 million km2 (roughly the size of Peru) smaller than the historic average (1979).

Waters in the Caribbean were hotter for longer than ever before measured by regional monitoring systems. This resulted in extensive coral bleaching throughout the region, from Colombia to the Florida Keys. Only this year’s record breaking hurricane activity limited additional bleaching.

Five records broken by the Atlantic hurricane season

In fact, although the hurricane season officially ended on the last day of November, Hurricane Epsilon was still blowing in the Atlantic into December.

All in all there were 26 named storms, exceeding the official name list and moving through the first five letters of the Greek alphabet. The US National Hurricane Centre had predicted a large year, but estimated only 18 to 21. Fourteen storms became hurricanes, meaning that winds exceeded speeds of 119 km per hour (74 mph). The previous record was 12 hurricanes in one year.

2005 saw five storms with winds over 249 km per hour (155 mph). And more storms then ever before in a single hurricane season hit the United States, as four of them made landfall. They were responsible for the most expensive hurricane damage ever. Figures are still not final for the 2005 season. According to the Insurance Industry Institute, however, Hurricane Katrina alone is already estimated at over US$ 100 billion total losses.

Record droughts around the planet

The drought in the Amazon continues and is a multidecadal if not century record. The western United States also continued its multiyear drought. And Spain saw the worst drought on record, with farmers in many regions losing up to 100% of their crops.

Events like these, overlayed on the recent dramatic findings of a slowing Gulf Stream, focus more attention on our need to take decisive action on climate change.

Limiting climate change to less than a 2ºC global average temperature increase is key to limiting record-breaking climate responses like these in 2005.