State of the Climate in 2002

Abstract

Neutral ENSO conditions at the beginning of 2002 gave way to a strengthening El Niño episode during boreal summer. Weather patterns in many areas of the world reflected the warm phase conditions. The average global temperature in 2002 was 0.45°C above the 1961?1990 mean, which places 2002 as the second warmest year on record. Land temperatures were 0.78°C above average and ocean temperatures were 0.31°C above the 1961?1990 mean. This ranks both land and ocean as the second warmest on record. Annual temperature anomalies in excess of 1.0°C were widespread across much of Russia, Eastern Europe, Alaska, and central South America, while significantly cooler than average conditions were confined to the eastern half of Canada, southern South America, and the eastern Pacific Ocean, near the coast of the United States. Although 12 tropical storms developed in the Atlantic during the boreal summer of 2002, most of them were weak and short-lived, which resulted in a slightly below normal season in terms of overall activity. However, seven tropical storms made landfall in the United States, with an eighth brushing the coast of North Carolina. Hurricane Lili was the first hurricane to make landfall in the United States in three years. Other notable aspects of the climate in 2002 include extreme drought in parts of the United States, Canada, and Australia; ongoing drought in portions of Central America; near-record flooding in central Europe; drought in West Africa; a failure of the Indian summer monsoon; flooding in China; the warmest year on record for Alaska; and the smallest Antarctic ozone hole in the last decade.