Sea ice in Antarctica dropped to its lowest recorded level of 1.92 million square kilometers (741,316 square miles) as of February 25, 2022, further melting during the rest of last year with record lows for June and July, the annual report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday.
"Sea ice in Antarctica dropped to 1.92 million km2 on February 25, 2022, the lowest level on record and almost 1 million km2 below the long-term (1991-2020) mean. For the rest of the year, it was continuously below average, with record lows in June and July," the report said.
The document also said that the global mean sea level continued to increase last year, with its rate – 2.27 millimeter a year – doubling since the first decade of satellite records (1993-2002) to 4.62 mm a year over the most recent decade.
"Global mean sea level (GMSL) continued to rise in 2022, reaching a new record high for the satellite altimeter record (1993-2022). The rate of global mean sea level rise has doubled between the first decade of the satellite record (1993-2002, 2.27 mm∙yr-) and the last (2013-2022, 4.62 mm∙yr)," the report read.
"The years 2015 to 2022 were the eight warmest in the instrumental record back to 1850. 2022 was the 5th or 6th warmest year. This was despite three consecutive years of a cooling La Nina – such a ‘triple-dip’ La Nina has happened only three times in the past 50 years," according to the report.
Additionally, the concentration of the three main greenhouse gases – methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide – hit record observed highs two years ago, "the latest year for which consolidated global values are available (1984-2021)," the document read.
It added that the annual increase in methane concentration from 2020-2021 was the highest ever recorded, and that real-time data from specific locations had indicated a continuous increase in levels of the greenhouse gases in 2022.