The Prague Post Online: News: 2007 warmest year on record

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July 5th, 2008

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2007 warmest year on record

Report points to a worrisome 'above-normal' climate trend

By Kimberly Ashton
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
January 23rd, 2008 issue

Anyone who was in Prague this time last year remembers the oddly tepid winter weather. In January 2007, parts of the country experienced springlike days of 18 degrees Celsius (64 Fahrenheit). The warm spell set the tone for the year to follow, with July temperatures soaring to tropical levels.

Now, a new hydrometeorological report has confirmed that last year was, in fact, unusually warm. Climatologists say that over the whole of Central Europe, 2007 was the warmest year on record — a fact that points to a worrisome trend.

The report by the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute refers to last year’s temperatures as “very above-normal,” with an average of 9.1 degrees, or 1.6 higher than usual.

“The weather situation in the individual months of the year only confirms the words of climatologists about the rising changes in climate,” the report stated. “After the warmest winter in history [since people have started measuring it], the warmest spring and an exceptionally hot summer [followed].” The 12-month period between September 2006 and August 2007 was the warmest on record in Europe, according to the institute. The first summery day (temperatures above 25 degrees) was recorded in April. That month was also unusually dry, getting only 10 percent of its normal rainfall.

The changes have already had impacts in much of Europe. Italian doctors, for example, are treating patients who’ve contracted diseases such a virus called chikungunya, once only found in the tropics. In recent years, apricots, almonds and some tea are being grown for the first time in southern England.

In the Czech Republic, the Environment Ministry considers the findings in the institute’s report to be part of an overall pattern.

“The fact that 2007 was the warmest year in Czech history cannot be interpreted as proof of climate change itself, but the trend is clear,” said Jakub Kašpar, spokesman for the ministry. “Ten of the past 12 years were the warmest in the history of exact measurement.” Measurements have been taken regularly since 1775.

Last year, the Czech Republic experienced 48 days of tropical weather, up from the normal of 31. “The Czech Republic experienced its first tropical day [as early as] May 14,” the hydrometeorological reports stated. “In an 11-day period from July 14 to July 24, temperatures rose every day above the tropical 30 degrees. However, the highest temperature in history was not measured.” That record was set in Prague July 27, 1983, when the mercury hit 40 degrees.

The effects of last year’s warm weather reverberated into other areas. A dry April meant an unusually high exposure to sunshine (180 percent of the long-term average). And over the course of the year there were roughly twice as many stormy days — 32 compared with 17. September recorded the highest amount of rainfall (117 mm) — some 225 percent of the average, beating out June, which is usually the wettest, as the rainiest month.

And the trend in continuing climate change doesn’t look as though it will be reversing any time soon. The most recent Environment Ministry report says production of greenhouse gas emissions — the main culprit thought to cause global warming — has not been decreasing since 2000, mainly because of increasing transportation.

“Emissions from motor transportation have been significantly on the rise, especially over the past five years. Their share of the total greenhouse gas emissions increased from 4.6 percent in 1990 to 12.8 percent in 2005,” the ministry report stated.

The Czech Republic fares poorly when compared with the rest of the European Union in curbing these emissions. In 2004, the country’s emissions per capita were the second-largest compared with other new EU members and fifth-largest in the entire union.

The ministry is now working on its updated climate change policy, Kašpar said. Meanwhile, the EU plans to publish its updated proposal for the climate, he added.

— Hela Balínová and Naďa Černá contributed to this report.

Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@praguepost.com

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