This year's September was the fifth warmest in 143 years, with the recorded global average temperature rising by 0.88 degree Celsius over the 20th century average, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in its latest report. With this, the US-based NOAA confirmed that 2022 could feature among the 10 warmest years ever recorded on Earth. Higher than normal temperatures were recorded over Africa, north America, southern Asia, Atlantic, and northern South America regions. Near normal or cooler temperatures were recorded over Europe, northern Asia, most parts of India, and southeastern Pacific Ocean, the NOAA report said. This was mainly due to above average rainfall over northern and southern Asia, Australia, central Europe, Caribbean islands and southeastern US. Last month, the sea-ice extent coverage dropped to the eighth lowest ever. The Arctic sea ice now cover 5.95 lakh square miles below the 1981-2010 average, whereas the Antarctica sea ice is 1.90 lakh square miles below average.
