October of 2019 was reportedly the hottest October ever recorded on Earth.?This was revealed by the Copernicus Union Climate Change Service (managed by the EU). As per the announcement, October 2019 was 0.69-degrees Celsius hotter than the global average from 1981 to 2010.?
Just last month, September was termed as the hottest month ever recorded, which was followed after July of 2019. The spike in temperature in September was witnessed in central and eastern USA, the Mongolian plateau and parts of the Arctic. Iran, Afghanistan, Mongolia and northern China also experienced "markedly above average" temperatures in the month.
In comparison to October 2015, the Earth was 0.01 degrees hotter this year. This month, the heat was experienced with above-average temperatures in southern Africa, Southern Australia, Arctic, Eastern Antarctica. Western U.S. and Canada, on the other hand, saw lower than average temperatures.?
Now, that might not seem like a lot, but even a slight rise in temperature is enough to cause chaos in the poles, resulting in melting of glaciers and icebergs and the water levels rising.?
Recently, European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel satellites have revealed two major cracks towards the West Antarctic ice sheet stretching as long as 20 kilometres.?
The cracks are visible on the Pine Island Glacier, which is a part of the West Antarctic ice sheet. This ice sheet has been rapidly releasing large amounts of ice in the ocean since the last 25 years.
Copernicus Climate Change Service/ECMWF
In September, over 40 per cent of Greenland experienced melting over a few days, with the total ice loss estimated to be more than 2 gigatons which is basically 2 billions tons of ice in a single day.
And all this ice isn't going anywhere but the sea, posing threat to cities like Mumbai situated around ocean bodies.?