NEW DELHI: The year 2021 was the fifth warmest since 1901 in India, with the annual mean land surface air temperature average being 0.44 degrees Celsius above the long period average (LPA). In all, 1,750 persons died because of extreme weather conditions in the last year, according to the IMD annual climate report.
The country averaged mean monthly temperatures warmer than normal during all the months of the year 2021 except for April, May, June and November. The highest country average of monthly mean temperatures was recorded in March, followed by the months of August, January and October, the report stated.
The 2021 temperature was, however, lower than the highest warming observed in the country in 2016, when it was 0.71 degree C above the LPA. The winter (January to February) and post-monsoon (October to December) seasons with all India mean temperature anomalies mainly contributed to this warming, according to the IMD report.
The global mean surface temperature anomaly during 2021 (January to September as per State of the Global Climate 2021 WMO provisional statement) was about 1.08 degree C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average and the global annual temperature is also likely to be between the fifth and seventh warmest year on record, as per the findings of the report.
The past decade (2011-2020/2012- 2021) was also the warmest on record with a decadal averaged annual mean temperature anomaly (Actual-LPA) of 0.340C/0.370C. During the year 2021, a total of five tropical cyclones formed over the north Indian Ocean — three over the Bay of Bengal and two over Arabian Sea. In addition to these tropical cyclones, extreme weather events like extremely heavy rainfall leading to floods, landslides, lightning, thunderstorm, etc were experienced in various parts of the country last year.