State of the Climate in Latin America & the Caribbean 2020
The global climate system is complex.
In order to unpack such complexity, the WMO State of the Global Climate uses Climate Indicators to describe the changing climate—providing a broad view of the climate at a global and regional scale. They are used to monitor the domains most relevant to climate change, including the composition of the atmosphere, the energy changes that arise from the accumulation of greenhouse gases and other factors, as well as the responses of land, oceans and ice. The following site aims to provide an overview of the State of the Climate in Latin America in 2020. For more information and further detail, please find the full report at the the bottom of the page.
The Global Context
The State of the Climate in Latin America and the Caribbean
Time series of mean annual regional air temperature anomalies from 1960 to 2020. Anomalies are relative to 1981-2010. Source: HadCRUT4
Explore temperature anomalies recorded across the region:
Temperature Anomalies in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2020 (Reference period: 1981-2010)
Explore precipitation anomalies recorded across the region:
Precipitation Anomalies in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2020 (Reference period: 1981-2010)
Why does sea surface temperature matter?
Sea surface temperature, particularly it's variability in El Niño and La Niña years, has an important role in the global climate system.
Sea surface temperature in the Tropical North Atlantic Ocean was significantly warmer than normal throughout the year.
In the Caribbean, 2020 was the year with the highest positive anomalies on record.
From May 2020, sea surface temperatures started to gradually cool in the equatorial Pacific and La Niña developed.
Together with a warmer Atlantic Warm Pool (AWP), this can contribute to a more active than normal hurricane season.
Extreme Events
Latin America and the Caribbean experienced various extreme events in 2020. This map is not exhaustive but aims to illustrate a few key examples from across the continent.
Highlights
Drought
- The intense drought and unusual fire season in the Pantanal region of Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia was the worst drought in the last 50 years.
- At the end of September 2020, moderate to extreme drought conditions covered 29.8% of Mexico.
Tropical Storms
- In 2020, 30 named storms were detected in the Atlantic basin , breaking the record for the highest number of tropical/subtropical storms in a single year.
- Two hurricanes reaching an intensity of category 4 with such a short time between them and making landfall in the same country (Nicaragua) is unprecedented.
Heatwaves
- From 29 September-15 October a major heat wave was felt from the southern Peruvian Amazon, all the way to Bolivia, Paraguay, northern Argentina and central and southern Brazil.
Intense Rainfall
- Heavy rains and induced floods, flash floods and landslides affected urban and rural Brazil, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru from March to May, Uruguay in June and Venezuela in September.
Hurricanes Eta & Iota
Among the most impactful events of 2020 in Latin America and the Caribbean were hurricanes Eta (category 4) and Iota (category 5). Their successive landfalls in November affected over 8 million people in Central America.
Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua were the most affected countries, with damages to 964,000 hectares of crops and disruptions to the agricultural livelihoods of people living in the indigenous territories.
Wildfires in the Amazon & Pantanal
LAC contains approximately 57% of the world’s remaining primary forests -- storing an estimated 104 gigatons of carbon, and hosting 40-50% of the world’s biodiversity and 1/3 of all plant species.
The Amazon River basin, which stretches across nine countries in South America, and stores 10% of global carbon has experienced heightened deforestation in the last four years due to clearing for cattle pasture and degradation from fires.
While it is still a net carbon sink, it teeters on the edge of becoming a net source if forest loss continues at current rates.
Listen to lead author José Marengo explain more about the siutation:
Impacts
Socio-economic Development, Displacement & Infrastructure
Hurricanes Eta and Iota caused 2.159 billion USD in total losses in Honduras, representing 0.8% GDP in addition to 7.4% related to COVID 19.
Approximately 4 million people were affected, and 287,315 hectares of crops were damaged. Communications were cut off to more than 95,000 people in 68 communities.
In Nicaragua, 1.8 million people were affected by Eta and Iota, including damages to 220,000 hectares of cultivated land and losses of 43,667 livestock animals.
Authorities estimate material damages amounting to about US$172 million, while immediate restoration costs are around US$36.4 million.
In Guatemala, Eta and Iota afflicted 1.2 million people, damaging 119,913 hectares of cultivated land and causing the death of 126,812 animals.
The broad reach and range of Hurricane Eta’s rain also significantly impacted Panama, Costa Rica, Belize and south-eastern Mexico.
Food Security
Extreme weather events affected over 8 million people across Central America, exacerbating food insecurity in countries already crippled by economic shocks, COVID-19 restrictions, and conflict.
Additionally, drought conditions throughout 2020 significantly impacted crop yields across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Almost 80% of maize grown in Guatemala’s highland region was lost.
In Mexico, the Cerritos municipality suffered a 50% drop in cultivated crops due to the drought, including sorghum, sunflower, and corn.
Haiti stood among the 10 worst countries in the world experiencing food crises, with 4.1 million people facing food crises or worse and 1.2 million facing emergency or worse levels in 2020.
Enhancing Climate Resilience & Adaptation Policy
Accounting for Complexity
Climate change must be understood in tandem with the level of human intervention in physical environment (e.g., uncontrolled or unregulated urbanization, destruction of ecosystems) and other underlying factors of risk such as poverty, inequality and corruption, among others.
Improving Multi-hazard Early Warning Systems
Strong climate hazard monitoring linked to early warning systems can inform anticipatory action and contingency plans to reduce disaster risk and disaster impacts on lives, livelihoods, and food security.
However, early warning systems are underdeveloped in LAC region, particularly in South America.
Hazard-specific monitoring systems such as FAO's Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS) is an example of a useful tool to allow governments to issue early warning alerts for specific sectors like the agriculture.
Ecosystem-based Adaptation Measures
In Latin America and the Caribbean, mangroves are an exceptional resource for adaptation and mitigation.
This ecosystem presents the capacity to store 3-4x more carbon than most of the forests on the planet, and provides other services like shore stabilization, biodiversity conservation, disaster mitigation among many others.
However, mangrove area in the region has declined 20.22% between 2001-2018.
The conservation and restoration of existing blue carbon ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrass beds, and salt marshes is therefore an important opportunity to mitigate and adapt to global warming.
Latin America and the Caribbean is one of world regions where climate change effects and impacts such as heatwaves, decreases in crop yield, wildfires, coral reef depletion and extreme sea level events are projected to be more intense.
Thus, limiting global warming well below 2 °C, as prescribed in the Paris Agreement, is essential to reduce the risks in a region already facing economic and social asymmetries to its sustainable development.
