ROME - The month that just ended was the hottest January ever on a global level, beating the record of January 2016 (+0.03 average degrees). The Copernicus Climate Change Service notes this, stating that in Europe the increase was 3.1 degrees over the reference period 1981-2010. Compared with January 2007, the second hottest year in Europe, the increase is 0.2 degrees. Average temperatures have been particularly high in various areas of north-eastern Europe, even over 6 degrees more.
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3), which conducted the analysis together with the European Center for Medium-term Meteorological Forecasts (Ecmwf) on behalf of the European Union, in January January 2020 was less rainy than average in Europe, with the exception of Norway and in the regions between northeastern Spain and southern France. In contrast, in the southern hemisphere of the planet, several countries, including western Australia, Madagascar and Mozambique, have experienced much more frequent than average rainfall.
As for the Poles, both the Arctic and Antarctica had to deal with ice coverings below the average of the reference period. "The latest data - notes the CS3 - show that 2020 continues to record record temperatures. The global average temperature for July 2019 was slightly higher than that of July 2016". Returning to 2019, the C3S recalls that it was the hottest year ever in Europe: the latest data show that the temperatures were over 1.2 degrees above the average of the thirty years considered. For the rest of the world, however, 2019 was the second hottest year.
