Average surface temperature analysis in the Asian region. Provided by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced on the 23rd (local time) that Asia’s warming rate was faster than the global average last year, and sea surface temperatures recorded an all-time high.
According to the State of the Climate in Asia report released by the WMO on the same day, the average annual surface temperature in Asia last year was 0.91 degrees Celsius (1.64 degrees Fahrenheit), higher than the average from 1991 to 2020. Compared to the average from 1961 to 1990, the increase is 1.87 degrees Celsius (3.37 degrees Fahrenheit), indicating a steep temperature rise.
The report stated, “Last year’s average annual surface temperature in Asia was the second highest on record, and warming is progressing faster than the global average. Asia is also the region that suffered the most damage from climate-related disasters.”
It was found that Asia’s sea surface temperature reached an all-time high.
The report diagnosed that “the Northwest Pacific, which is closely related to Asia, had the warmest annual sea surface temperature on record last year,” and “the sea surface temperatures in the Kuroshio Current, the Arabian Sea, the southern Barents Sea, and the southern Kara Sea warmed up more than three times faster than the global average.”
The report also indicated that glacier loss has accelerated.
The abnormally high temperatures observed in the eastern Himalayas and the Tian Shan mountains in Central Asia were found to have caused most of the ice mass loss in glacier areas. The report noted that “the Urumqi Glacier No.1 in the eastern Tian Shan showed the second largest ice loss since observations began in 1959.”
The WMO explained that the rapid warming in Asia led to natural disasters such as floods and droughts.