In May 2016, an all-time record high temperature of 51°C was recorded in Rajasthan, India, by some accounts the third-highest temperature ever documented globally. What was behind the extreme heat?
Record high temperatures in India, 2016
Sam Fraser-Baxter
Great Barrier reef bleaching, 2016
The worst bleaching event on record has affected corals across the Great Barrier Reef in the last few months. As of the end of March, a whopping 93% of the reef has experienced bleaching.
Storm Desmond brings heavy rain to the UK, December 2015
A fierce Atlantic storm, Desmond, struck parts of northern England, southern Scotland and Ireland the first weekend in December 2015, with a new national record for rainfall accumulation in a 24-hour period.
Chennai floods, December 2015
A relentless downpour pounded Tamil Nadu’s capital city of Chennai on December 1, 2015, flooding and submerging one of India’s largest cities. The heaviest one-day rainfall in the region – as much as 494 mm (19.45 inches) – in more than a century left more than three million people without basic services.
2015 – a record breaking hot year
With colleagues at the University of Reading, we performed a simple analysis to assess what factors played a role in this record heat, specifically the roles of greenhouse gas emissions associated with global warming, the natural climate oscillation known as El Niño, as well as solar activity and volcanic aerosols.