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2016 was country's warmest year: IMD

Annual mean temperature was 0.91 degrees above normal. Extreme weather events claimed nearly 1600 lives

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The year that went by was the warmest ever on record since the documenting of meteorological records began in 1901, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said in its 'statement of climate of India, 2016'. Frequent extreme weather events, that claimed nearly 1600 lives and a record low for Northeast monsoon were the other major developments in the country's climate in 2016.

The weather conditions in 2016 were in line with warmer than normal climate observed globally for this period, the statement said. The annual mean surface temperature averaged over the country during 2016 was +0.91 degree Celsius above the average recorded between 1961-1990. Before 2016, 2009 was the warmest year on record, when annual mean temperature was +0.77 degree Celsius above average. The statement emphasised that 13 out of 15 warmest years were seen between 2002-2016.


While all 12 months of 2016 recorded warmer than normal average temperatures, January to April saw temperatures 1 degree Celsius above average. Of these four months, January and February were the warmest since 1901, explaining the warmer than usual winter last year. "The gradual increase of temperatures across the world has been linked to global warming and we will continue to see this trend. 2015 was an El Niño year, one of the strongest ever, and it continued to impact weather events in 2016 too, which made it the warmest year," said Madhavan Nair Rajeevan, secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences. During an active El Niño, Pacific Ocean waters see warming resulting in droughts across South and South-East Asia and even parts of the Africa. Scientists across world said that the El Niño, that ended in May 2016, was probably one of the strongest seen since 1996.

The Northeast monsoon in 2016, the statement added, was 55 per cent below normal and the fifth lowest since 1901. "The seasonal rainfall over south peninsula, comprising of Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, South interior Karnataka and Kerala was substantially below average and lowest ever recorded for the region since 1901," the IMD statement said.

When it came to extreme weather events, 2016 was severe across vast regions of the country. Lightning related deaths saw a sharp spike last year. In various parts of northern, northeastern, central and peninsular regions of the country, lightning during the pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons caused 415 deaths and Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha were affected the most, it said.

Floods caused due to heavy rainfall battered Bihar, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra whereas heat waves tormented Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha claiming 700 lives between April and May.

The continuous trend of warming is affecting monsoon rains and also playing a part in extreme weather events, Rajeevan said. "Studies have clearly shown that there is a relationship between warming trends and high-impact weather events such as storms and heat waves. The warming will affect the quantum of monsoon as it is not likely to increase in the years ahead." Last November, even a World Meteorological Organisation report had said that high temperatures were showing a greater co-relation with extreme weather events.

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