The United States, the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has just experienced its hottest winter on record, marked in particular by record fires and ice melting, the leading American agency announced on Friday.
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The average temperature during the meteorological winter, from December to February, for the contiguous United States (which notably does not include Alaska or Hawaii) was 3.1°C, the US Observing Agency said oceanic and atmospheric (NOAA).
This “persistent heat” caused a “continuous decrease in ice cover” of the Great Lakes in the northern United States, “which reached a historic low” in mid-February, NOAA said.
A fire, the Smokehouse Creek, broke out in Texas in February and burned more than 430,000 hectares, becoming the largest fire in the southern state’s history.
Last month alone ranked as the third warmest February in the United States, according to NOAA data going back 130 years.
Globally, Europe’s Copernicus Observatory said earlier this week that the past three months had been the hottest on record, with February part of a string of nine consecutive monthly records.
The average temperature of the oceans, which cover 70% of the Earth, also reached a new absolute record in February, all months combined, according to Copernicus.
NOAA’s analysis of global temperatures is expected next week, but is generally similar to that of Copernicus.
Records
High temperatures fueled strong storms that resulted in tornadoes in the US Midwest, NOAA said.
These unusual conditions also have economic consequences. On Thursday, the state of Minnesota, in the north of the country, announced it would release aid for small businesses suffering due to “historic drought conditions this winter”.
“The low precipitation observed this winter has had a real economic impact on small businesses that rely on snow and winter tourism to survive,” Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, said in a press release.
The world records are being driven by the combined effect of continued greenhouse gas emissions and the El Niño climate phenomenon, according to Copernicus.
US President Joe Biden, who delivered his State of the Union address to Congress on Thursday evening, said he was “making history by tackling the climate crisis”.
“I am taking the most significant actions ever taken on climate in the history of the world,” he said, repeating his goal of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by half. here 2030.
But “the work is not finished,” reacted the Sunrise Movement, an organization bringing together young people committed to global warming, by calling on the president to do more to motivate young people to vote in the November presidential election. .
The United States is currently the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases in absolute terms, behind China. But taking into account historical emissions, that is to say cumulative emissions since 1850, they are still in the lead.
The World Meteorological Organization says there is a chance that La Niña – which, unlike El Niño, lowers global temperatures – will develop “later this year” after neutral conditions between April and June .
