Newsletter Issue 18 (April 2022)

The Weather of March 2022 – An unseasonably warm March

With the northeast monsoon over southern China generally weaker than normal for most of the time in the month, March 2022 was much warmer than usual in Hong Kong. The monthly mean maximum temperature of 25.0 degrees was 3.1 degrees above normal and the highest on record for March.

World Meteorological Day ceremony: boost the power of prediction

The drive for universal coverage and protection by Early Warning services – one of the most effective forms of climate adaptation both in terms of saving lives and economic benefits – has been injected with a new sense of urgency. UN Secretary-General António Guterres tasked the World Meteorological Organization to draw up a blueprint in the next six months to ensure that Early Warning Systems reach everyone within the next five years.

WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas remarks for IPCC Working Group III report

“This report shows us that the most effective and affordable means of different types of economies to enhance the basis for mitigation.”, said Prof. Petteri Taalas in the recorded message to IPCC Working Group III Press Conference. “The WGII report was showing that every corner of Earth is already affected by climate change. This report shows that every region in the world has an impact on climate change problem today.”

UN climate report: It’s ‘now or never’ to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees
Reacting to the latest findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN Secretary-General insisted that unless governments everywhere reassess their energy policies, the world will be uninhabitable. The UN chief added: “This is not fiction or exaggeration. It is what science tells us will result from our current energy policies. We are on a pathway to global warming of more than double the 1.5-degree limit” that was agreed in Paris in 2015.”

How not to interpret the emissions scenarios in the IPCC report
The high level of transparency and data availability of the IPCC report encourages further research by others. However, providing convenient access to these resources and making them available for the world also opens a Pandora’s box of misinterpretation and inappropriate use. Here are some ways in which these scenarios are often being misunderstood and, as a consequence, inappropriately used or misrepresented.

Amazon rainforest reaching tipping point, researchers say

New research shows the cycle has shifted in a way that is likely to fuel extremes, including wild swings between heat and drought and flooding rains. “Anything that happens in the tropics affects both the northern and southern hemisphere,” a co-author of the research said, adding that, as the El Niño/Southern Oscillation changes, the affected areas are expanding and the extremes are intensifying and lasting longer in both hemispheres.

A ‘new era of air pollution’ in the Tropics could have a huge toll

Some 180,000 premature deaths in large tropical cities in 2018 alone were attributable to increased exposure to pollutants since 2005, according to researchers at University College London. They found yearly increases of up to 14 percent for nitrogen dioxide, up to 12 percent for ammonia, up to 11 percent for V.O.C.s and up to 8 percent for fine particulate matter. Those numbers, combined with public health risk assessment models, allowed them to estimate how many premature deaths would be associated with such increases.

Antarctic heat, rain and ice prompt concern

Record high temperatures, rain and the collapse of an ice shelf in East Antarctica have prompted questions and concern about the possible role of climate change in the coldest and driest part of the world. The events happened just after Antarctic sea ice minimum extent after the summer melt fell below 2 million square kilometers for the first time since satellite records in 1979, according to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center.

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