WASHINGTON, June 15 - Global temperature records were broken yet again in May this year, according to data released by the NASA, which also found that the northern hemisphere witnessed the hottest spring ever.
The heat has been especially pronounced in the Arctic, resulting in a very early onset of the annual melting of the Arctic sea ice and the Greenland ice sheet. Snow cover in the northern hemisphere was exceptionally low.
The record temperatures in May were accompanied by other extreme events, including very heavy precipitation in parts of Europe and the southern US, and widespread and severe coral reef bleaching.
�The state of the climate so far this year gives us much cause for alarm,� said David Carlson, Director of the World Climate Research Programme.
�Exceptionally high temperatures. Ice melt rates in March and May that we don�t normally see until July. Once-in-a-generation rainfall events. The super El Nino is only partly to blame,� Carlson said.
The strong El Nino � which has now dissipated � fuelled the high temperatures witnessed so far in 2016. However, the underlying cause of global warming remains greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activities, according to the World Meteorological Organisation. � PTI
