A statement on Climate of India during 2020 was recently released by India Meteorological Department (IMD).
According to it, the year 2020 was the eighth warmest since 1901 but it was substantially lower than the highest warming observed in 2016.
Key takeaways
The past two decades – 2001-2010 and 2011-2020 – were also the warmest decades on record with anomalies of 0.23 degree Celsius and 0.34 degree Celsius respectively, indicating the overall rising temperature.
12 out of the 15 warmest years since 1901 were during the past 15 years itself – between 2006 and 2020.
India’s average annual mean temperature during 1901-2020 showed an increasing trend of 0.62 degree Celsius per 100 years.
It also showed significant increasing trend in maximum temperature (0.99 degree C/100 years) and relatively lower increasing trend (0.24 degree C/100 years) in minimum temperature.
During 2020, annual mean land surface air temperature averaged was 0.29 degree Celsius above normal (based on the data of 1981-2010).
The five warmest years on record in order were: 2016, 2009, 2017, 2010, and 2015.
The 2020 Northeast monsoon season (October-December) rainfall over the country as a whole was normal (101% of LPA).
