Earth’s long-term warming trend can be seen in this visualization of NASA’s global temperature record, which shows how the planet’s temperatures are changing over time, compared to a baseline average from 1951 to 1980. The record is shown as a running five-year average.

According to independent analyses by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Earth's global surface temperatures in 2019 were the second warmest since modern recordkeeping began in 1880.

Globally, 2019 temperatures were second only to those of 2016 and continued the planet's long-term warming trend: the past five years have been the warmest of the last 140 years.

This past year, they were 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (0.98 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

“The decade that just ended is clearly the warmest decade on record,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt. “Every decade since the 1960s clearly has been warmer than the one before.”

Since the 1880s, the average global surface temperature has risen and the average temperature is now more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit (a bit more than 1 degree Celsius) above that of the late 19th century. For reference, the last Ice Age was about 10 degrees Fahrenheit colder than pre-industrial temperatures.

This plot shows yearly temperature anomalies from 1880 to 2019, with respect to the 1951-1980 mean, as recorded by NASA, NOAA, the Berkeley Earth research group, the Met Office Hadley Centre (UK), and the Cowtan and Way analysis. Though there are minor variations from year to year, all five temperature records show peaks and valleys in sync with each other. All show rapid warming in the past few decades, and all show the past decade has been the warmest.

Using climate models and statistical analysis of global temperature data, scientists have concluded that this increase mostly has been driven by increased emissions into the atmosphere of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases produced by human activities.

“We crossed over into more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit warming territory in 2015 and we are unlikely to go back. This shows that what’s happening is persistent, not a fluke due to some weather phenomenon: we know that the long-term trends are being driven by the increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” Schmidt said.

Because weather station locations and measurement practices change over time, the interpretation of specific year-to-year global mean temperature differences has some uncertainties. Taking this into account, NASA estimates that 2019’s global mean change is accurate to within 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit, with a 95% certainty level.

Weather dynamics often affect regional temperatures, so not every region on Earth experienced similar amounts of warming. NOAA found the 2019 annual mean temperature for the contiguous 48 United States was the 34th warmest on record, giving it a “warmer than average” classification. The Arctic region has warmed slightly more than three times faster than the rest of the world since 1970.

Rising temperatures in the atmosphere and ocean are contributing to the continued mass loss from Greenland and Antarctica and to increases in some extreme events, such as heat waves, wildfires, intense precipitation.

NASA’s temperature analyses incorporate surface temperature measurements from more than 20,000 weather stations, ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures, and temperature measurements from Antarctic research stations.

These in situ measurements are analyzed using an algorithm that considers the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and urban heat island effects that could skew the conclusions. These calculations produce the global average temperature deviations from the baseline period of 1951 to 1980.

NOAA scientists used much of the same raw temperature data, but with a different interpolation into the Earth’s polar and other data-poor regions. NOAA’s analysis found 2019 global temperatures were 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit (0.95 degrees Celsius) above the 20th century average.

NASA’s full 2019 surface temperature data set and the complete methodology used for the temperature calculation and its uncertainties are available at data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp

GISS is a laboratory within the Earth Sciences Division of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.

NASA uses the unique vantage point of space to better understand Earth as an interconnected system. The agency also uses airborne and ground-based measurements, and develops new ways to observe and study Earth with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. NASA shares this knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.

For more information about NASA’s Earth science activities, visit www.nasa.gov/earth.

The slides for the Jan. 15 news conference are available at NOAA/NCDC website (PDF).

NOAA’s Global Report is available at www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201913

Related report from Copernicus

• Copernicus Report: 2019 was the second warmest year and the last five years were the warmest on record

https://www.windy.com/-Temperature-temp?temp,14.520,-48.516,3,internal

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) announces today that 2019 was the fifth in a series of exceptionally warm years and the second warmest year globally ever recorded.

Meanwhile, Europe saw its warmest year on record by a small margin. Together with the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), C3S also reports that CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere have continued to rise. Their data provide the first complete, global picture of 2019 temperatures and CO2 levels.

The results are in line with previous projections from WMO and the Global Carbon Project (GCP) for 2019. The WMO estimated that 2019 was likely to be the 2nd or 3rd warmest year on record, while both WMO and the GCP indicated that atmospheric CO2 concentrations had continued to increase.

C3S and CAMS are both implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Union. The services provide quality-assured data on 2019 temperatures and CO2 concentrations, among many other climate variables. This helps policy makers, organisations, and individuals make informed choices about climate change mitigation and the quality of the air we breathe.

The temperature dataset provided by C3S shows that the global average surface air temperature was 0.04 °C lower than in 2016, the warmest year on record.

The data also show that:

The five warmest years on record have all occurred in the last 5 years, with 2019 coming in as the second warmest and 2010-2019 being the warmest decade on record.

• 2019 was almost 0.6 °C warmer than the 1981-2010 average
• The average temperature of the last 5 years was between 1.1 and 1.2 °C higher than the pre-industrial level defined by the IPCC
• Europe saw its warmest calendar year on record, marginally ahead of 2014, 2015 and 2018

Furthermore, according to satellite measurements of global atmospheric CO2 concentrations:

• CO2 continued to rise in 2019, increasing by 2.3 ± 0.8 ppm

The most pronounced warming compared to the 1981-2010 average occurred in Alaska and over other large parts of the Arctic. Most land areas were warmer than average, especially eastern and southern Europe, southern Africa and Australia. In contrast, central and south-eastern Canada experienced below average annual temperatures.

In Europe all seasons were warmer than usual, with the summer and autumn being the fourth warmest on record. None of the seasons was record-breaking in terms of average temperature, but Europe nevertheless saw its warmest calendar year on record, marginally ahead of 2014, 2015 and 2018. A more detailed analysis of the climate in Europe will be presented by Copernicus in its European State of the Climate 2019, which is set to be released in April.

Running 60-month averages of global air temperature at a height of two metres (left-hand axis) and estimated change since the pre-industrial period (right-hand axis) according to different datasets: ERA5 (ECMWF Copernicus Climate Change Service, C3S); GISTEMPv4 (NASA); HadCRUT4 (Met Office Hadley Centre); NOAAGlobalTempv5 (NOAA), JRA-55 (JMA); and Berkeley Earth.

“2019 has been another exceptionally warm year, in fact the second warmest globally in our dataset, with many of the individual months breaking records”, says Carlo Buontempo, Head of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). “The C3S temperature dataset for 2019 is the first complete set to be published including annual anomalies and globally averaged fields. This is possible because we are an operational programme, processing millions of land, marine, airborne and satellite observations daily. A state-of-the-art computer model is used to bring all these observations together, in a similar way to how weather forecasting is carried out.”

Jean-Noël Thépaut, Director of ECMWF Copernicus comments: “The past five years have been the five warmest on record; the last decade has been the warmest on record: These are unquestionably alarming signs. Seeing one or more months much warmer than the recent reference period can be disconcerting but does not as such represent a climate trend, as monthly temperature deviations vary, and some regions may show below average conditions for a while. We produce data with full global coverage of temperature every day and publish monthly and annual summaries based on this dataset that currently goes back to 1979. For determining possible long-term trends related to climate change, observations dating long into the past are invaluable. Therefore, we also compare our data with climate data dating back to the pre-industrial era to ascertain these long-term climate trends.”

Using the advantages of reanalysis

To produce its quality-assured data, C3S and CAMS use reanalysis, a scientific method which aims to estimate weather conditions and atmospheric composition for each and every day over the past few decades as accurately as possible, based on a multitude of observations.

These observations come from a variety of platforms or instruments, from weather stations to weather balloons and satellites. Taken by themselves, they provide an incomplete view of the atmosphere, as each type of observation only measures one particular aspect of the weather or atmospheric composition, such as temperature, wind or humidity etc. Also, the observations are unevenly distributed around the globe and their number tends to decrease as we go back in time.

The process of reanalysis then combines all distinct observations available on a given day and creates a complete 3D picture of conditions all around the world, for each hour of the day. Once stitched together, these pictures of global weather conditions and atmospheric composition provide a comprehensive historical record of the Earth’s climate that can be used to monitor how fast it is changing.

CO2 concentrations continue to increase

The analysis of satellite data indicates that carbon dioxide concentrations have continued to rise in recent years, including in 2019. Satellite-derived CO2 concentrations are representative of the column-averaged CO2 mixing ratio, also denoted XCO2. The dataset is a combination of two datasets that were generated for C3S and CAMS.

The estimated annual mean XCO2 growth rate for 2019 is 2.3 ± 0.8 ppm/year. This is larger than the growth rate in 2018, which was 2.1 ± 0.5 ppm/year, but less than the 2.9 ± 0.3 ppm/year in 2015. 2015 was a year with a strong El Niño climate event, which resulted in a larger atmospheric growth rate due to a weaker than normal uptake of atmospheric CO2 by the terrestrial vegetation, and large CO2 emissions from wildfires, for example in Indonesia.

Monthly global CO2 concentrations from satellites, column-averaged CO2 (XCO2), for 2003-2019. The listed numerical values in red indicate annual averages. Based on the C3S/Obs4MIPs(v4.1) consolidated (2003-2018) and CAMS preliminary near-real time data (2019) records. Source: University of Bremen for Copernicus Climate Change Service(C3S) and Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) implemented by ECMWF

Regular climate monitoring

Every year, C3S provides a detailed look at the climate of our continent in its European State of the Climate report. In the report, more climate variables and specific climate events of the past year will be analysed. The European State of the Climate 2019 will be announced in spring 2020.

In addition to the annual temperature values, C3S routinely publishes climate bulletins at the beginning of each month, reporting on anomalies in surface air temperature, sea ice cover and hydrological variables. The latest climate bulletin for the month of December is now available, with the following findings for surface air temperature.

December 2019 surface air temperature:

• Global temperatures were on a par with December 2015, making these two months jointly the warmest Decembers in the data record
• December 2019 was more than 0.7°C warmer than the December average for 1981-2010
• The average temperature over Europe was 3.2°C warmer than that of the standard reference period (1981-2010), making it the warmest December on record for Europe by a narrow margin

More information and high-resolution graphics for December 2019 can be downloaded here: climate.copernicus.eu/climate-bulletins

About the data - Temperatures

The map and quoted data values are from ECMWF Copernicus Climate Change Service’s ERA5 dataset. Area averages for temperature over the European region are for land only with the following longitude/latitude bounds: 25W-40E, 34N-72N.

The graph is based on ERA5 and five other datasets: JRA-55 produced by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), GISTEMP (version4) produced by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), HadCRUT4 produced by the Met Office Hadley Centre in collaboration with the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, NOAAGlobalTemp (version5) produced by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Berkeley Earth’s “recommended” version of their monthly land + ocean temperature dataset.

The ERA5 and JRA-55 datasets run to the end of 2019; the other datasets are currently available only to the end of November 2019. The data have been accessed and processed largely as described in a peer-reviewed publication (doi: 10.1002/qj.2949).

Each dataset shown in the graph is aligned to have the same average temperature for 1981–2010 as ERA5. For JRA-55 this entails a temperature reduction of 0.1°C. The other datasets are originally defined only as values relative to reference periods. HadCRUT4 is an ensemble of 100 possible realisations.

The median and range of the ensemble are plotted. The ensemble does not sample the uncertainty associated with limited geographical coverage, which is substantial for the earliest decades.

1981–2010 is the latest 30-year reference period defined by the WMO for calculating climatological averages. It is the first such period for which satellite observations of key variables including sea-surface temperature and sea-ice cover are available to support globally complete meteorological reanalyses such as ERA5.

The climatological average temperature for the pre-industrial period is taken to be 0.63°C lower than the average for 1981–2010. This follows what is suggested in the IPCC ‘Global warming of 1.5°C’ report, which estimates the increase from the pre-industrial (defined as 1850-1900) to the 20-year period 1986-2005 to be “0.63°C (±0.06°C 5–95% range based on observational uncertainties alone)”.

The annual mean temperature difference between the periods 1981-2010 and 1986-2005 is non-significant for all datasets presented here (-0.009°C to +0.004°C).

There is good general agreement among datasets concerning the substantial increase in global temperatures over the last four decades, and more uncertainty concerning changes over earlier, less well observed decades.

The spread in the global averages from the various datasets has also been relatively large over the past three years. During this period twelve-month-average temperatures relative to 1981-2010 from ERA5 are generally higher than those from the five other datasets, by between 0.03°C and 0.14°C for the latest twelve months (to November 2019) for which comparisons can be made.

This is due partly to differences in the extent to which datasets represent the relatively warm conditions that have predominated over the Arctic and the seas around Antarctica, but differences in estimates both of sea-surface temperature elsewhere and of temperature over land outside the Arctic have been further factors.

The ERA5 dataset differs from other datasets in that it has a cooling trend to the north and north-east of Greenland. This trend is associated with positive (warm) wintertime temperature anomalies in the first ten or so years of the 1981-2010 reference period, which are not seen in other estimates for this region.

These anomalous temperatures may be linked with questionably low values of the fractional sea-ice cover specified in ERA5 at that time. As a result, negative (cold) anomalies in the annual average over this region must be viewed with caution.

About the data - Carbon dioxide concentrations

We present a timeseries of monthly global averages of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) derived from satellite sensors. Satellite-derived CO2 concentrations are representative of the column-averaged CO2 mixing ratio, also denoted XCO2.

The annual averages given in the graph are derived by computing the average of the monthly values.

Because higher atmospheric layers, such as the stratosphere, typically contain less CO2, the XCO2 values are usually somewhat lower than CO2 concentrations measured near the Earth’s surface. This is why satellite XCO2 values are similar, but not exactly identical to estimates based on surface observations, which are the basis of reporting by WMO and the Global Carbon Project (GCP).

The data for 2003-2018 is the consolidated product of “C3S XCO2 data derived from satellite sensors”, produced by the Copernicus Climate Change Service. The high quality C3S climate data record has been generated by merging an ensemble of individual satellite datasets from the satellite instruments SCIAMACHY/ENVISAT, TANSO-FTS/GOSAT and NASA’s OCO-2 mission, using products generated by C3S and ESA GHG-CCI in Europe, NASA in the USA and NIES in Japan.

This merged product, which is in the Obs4MIPs format (see Obs4MIPs website), is extended each year by one additional year and year 2019 data will be available end of 2020. For details see Reuter et al., 2019.

The data for 2019 is the near-real time preliminary product of “CAMS XCO2 data derived from satellite sensors”, produced by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. This data product has been generated from TANSO-FTS/GOSAT. For details see Heymann et al., 2015.

The XCO2 growth rates have been computed using the method of Buchwitz et al., 2018.

https://www.windy.com/-Temperature-temp?temp,31.803,-53.350,3,internal

Climate change, it’s a fact. We’re seeing it more and more every year. From burning hot summers with excruciating long droughts to short sharp springs and non-existent autumns blurring into a wet winter. Everyone and everything living is affected, big and small and this includes our local mycology of the UK.

But who is noticing?

Well actually, it’s quite a few people and more than just a few mushrooms. Professional and amateur mycologists (Those are people who like fungi and study them) have noticed the decline for a while but recently shroomers and psychonaughts (These are people who take magic mushrooms for the hallucinogenic purposes) are also noticing the decline and talking about this on drugs forums such as Bluelight.

Fungi play a huge role in our ecosystems more than what most people usually think about, they’re responsible for decomposition, ecological recycling and creates nitrogen, this is the gas which makes up 78.09% of dry air.

Fungi decompose the hard-to-digest organic material into easier to-digest-forms that other organisms can use. Fungi also play a role in floods with water infiltration and soil water holding capacity.

“Climate impact is already apparent: fungal reproduction, geographic distributions, physiology and activity have changed markedly in the last few decades, through direct climate change effects on fungal growth and indirect effects on their habitats” – Peter G. Kennedy, Carrie Andrew (State of the World’s Fungi 2018 9. Climate change: Fungal responses and effects)

Fungi play a major component in the regulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide, they help store carbon dioxide in soils and according to Clemmensen, K. E., et al. (2013) “approximately 50–70% of carbon stored in boreal forest soils in Scandinavia was derived from dead roots and associated fungi.”

This vividly highlights the large role in which fungi play amongst our ecosystem and how fragile and delicate this balance is and how much carbon dioxide mycelium locks away in the soil.

Seasons play a huge role in fungi, and have a fruiting season depending on the species. Mushrooms are in essence like apples, the mycelium is the tree and the mushroom is the fruiting body.

The fruiting body contains millions of spores of which are transported by many ways from woodland animals to casual, not professional, foragers who will carry these fungi far and wide spreading their spores.

Naturally because of this damper seasons tend to be the best for fruiting bodies, and with British summers lasting longer and drought becoming more prevalent drought, as a rule, reduces the length of the reproductive season.

Andrew, C., et al. (2018) discovered that fungal reproductive timing (called phenology) has become extended because little as 0.2°C can shift the production of spore-bearing fungi by one day (especially for fungi that reproduce in autumn). The temperature also drives the rate of compositing patterns across Europe.

Some fungi are more adaptable to climate change than others. For example species of jelly fungi like the Crystal Brain Fungus (above), have cell walls that can contract down to become hard and resistant when dry but go back to a gelatinous structure when moisture is available.

These fungi are particularly resistant to droughts which is particularly useful in British climates which are becoming increasingly susceptible to summertime droughts.

Other fungi have thicker spore walls which can deal with environmental stresses better than fungi which produce thinner celled wall spores. Depending on the thickness, these could survive prolonged high temperatures, droughts and even fires.

Zoe Wilderspin
Amateur Mycologist With Questionable Morels. Follow me on Twitter.

October temperatures in 2019 were above the 1981-2010 average for most of Europe, especially so in the east and south-east. Below-average temperatures occurred over most of the north and north-west of the continent.

Elsewhere, temperatures over the northern hemispheric land masses were markedly above average over parts of the Arctic, over the eastern USA and Canada, and over the Middle East and much of North Africa and Russia. Temperatures were likewise well above average over southern Brazil, southern Africa, western and southern Australia, and most of eastern Antarctica.

Temperatures over land were substantially below average over a region encompassing much of the western USA and Canada. They were also below average in parts of tropical Africa and Antarctica, and to a lesser degree over several other regions.

Regions of below-average temperature occurred over all major oceans, including the tropical eastern Pacific and the ice-covered Weddell Sea. Air temperatures over sea were nevertheless predominantly higher than average, especially so over several Arctic and Antarctic seas and over the north-eastern Pacific Ocean.

Global temperatures were substantially above average in October 2019. The month was:

• 0.69°C warmer than the average October from 1981-2010, making it by a narrow margin the warmest October in this data record;
• an insignificant 0.01°C warmer than October 2015, the second warmest October;
• 0.09°C warmer than October 2017, the third warmest October.

European-average temperature anomalies are generally larger and more variable than global anomalies, especially in winter, when they can change by several degrees from one month to the next. The European-average temperature for October 2019 was:

• 1.1°C warmer than the average October from 1981-2010;
• The third warmest October in the period from 1979 onwards: 2001 and 2006 were warmer.

The last 12 months - November 2018 to October 2019

Temperatures averaged over the twelve-month period from November 2018 to October 2019 were:

• much above the 1981-2010 average over most of the Arctic, peaking over and near Alaska and over the central parts of northern Siberia;
• above average over virtually all of Europe;
• above average over most other areas of land and ocean, especially so over north-eastern China, the Middle East, south-east Asia, Australia, southern Africa and some parts of the Antarctic;
• below average over some land and oceanic areas, most notably over the North American prairies.

Averaging over twelve-month periods smooths out the shorter-term variations. Globally, the twelve-month period from November 2018 to October 2019 was 0.56°C warmer than the 1981-2010 average. The warmest twelve-month period was from October 2015 to September 2016, with a temperature 0.66°C above average. 2016 is the warmest calendar year on record, with a global temperature 0.63°C above that for 1981-2010. The second warmest calendar year, 2017, had a temperature 0.54°C above average, while the third warmest year, 2018, was 0.46°C above the 1981-2010 average.

0.63°C should be added to these values to relate recent global temperatures to the pre-industrial level defined in the IPCC Special Report on “Global Warming of 1.5°C”. Monthly temperatures over the past twelve months have averaged close to 1.2°C above this pre-industrial level. The October temperature is 1.2°C above the level.

The spread in the global averages from various temperature datasets has been relatively large over the past three years. During this period the twelve-month average values presented here are higher than those from several independent datasets, by between 0.05°C and 0.15°C for the twelve months for which spread is largest. This is due partly to differences in the extent to which datasets represent the relatively warm conditions that have predominated over the Arctic and the seas around Antarctica. Differences in estimates both of sea-surface temperature elsewhere and of temperatures over land outside the Arctic have been further factors. There is nevertheless general agreement between datasets regarding:

• The exceptional warmth of 2016, and the warmth also of 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019;
• The overall average rate of warming of around 0.18°C per decade since the late 1970s;
• The sustained period of above-average temperatures from 2001 onwards.

There is more variability in average European temperatures, but values are less uncertain because observational coverage of the continent is relatively dense. Twelve-month averages for Europe were at a high level from 2014 to 2016. They then fell, but remained 0.5°C or more above the 1981-2010 average. Twelve-month averages have risen since then, but have again fallen in recent months. The latest average, for the period from November 2018 to October 2019, is 1.1°C above the 1981-2010 norm. The warmest such period, from April 2018 to March 2019, was 1.5°C above average.

The average surface air temperature analysis homepage explains more about the production and reliability of the values presented here.

https://www.windy.com/-Temperature-temp?temp,35.030,-42.539,3,i:pressure,internal

Check out the day by day recap of the 3.000 miles long zero carbon journey below.

• Check out the track of Malizia II with Greta Thunberg on board over the last 12 hours satellite imagery

Day 15. Aug 28, 2019

We have anchored off Coney Island - clearing customs and immigration. We will come ashore at North Cove Marina earliest 14:45 tide allowing. —Boris Herrmann

Not really arrived yet. Still waiting for customs. —Boris Herrmann

Land!! The lights of Long Island and New York City ahead. —Greta Thunberg

Home Sweet Home since 14 days. Soon last evening onboard Malizia ll. Tomorrow we reach New York. —Greta Thunberg

Day 14. Aug 27, 2019

119 miles from Manhattan. Very light winds south of Long Island

Day 13. Aug 26, 2019

Rough seas south of Nova Scotia. But conditions closer to New York will be slower than predicted and weather update suggests Wednesday arrival - an updated ETA will come as we near the coast. —Greta Thunberg

Boris Herrmann is ready for NYC.

Weather forecast

Dr. Peter Landschützer from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology explains the collaboration with Team Malizia.

Day 12. Aug 25, 2019

We are getting closer to the North American mainland. Rough conditions, but downwind sailing.

Strong winds are pushing us west. We expect to arrive at North Cove Marina in Manhattan, New York sometime Tuesday afternoon or evening.

—Greta Thunberg

Weather forecast

Day 11. Aug 24, 2019

Very bumpy and wet, south of Newfoundland. —Greta Thunberg

Checking the weather

Video message from Pierre Casiraghi of the Malizia II out of the storm

Day 10. Aug 23, 2019

Weather forecast, including Amazon Fires

Day 9. Aug 22, 2019

Weather forecast

Day 8. Aug 21, 2019

42° 25’ N 39° 27’ W. At sea you really loose sense of time and you can’t separate the days. You sleep, eat, look at the ocean. —Greta Thunberg

Weather forecast

(Tropical Storm) Chantal is working very well to our advantage, and we positioned Malizia there to ride the Easterly winds to have a comfortable downwind passage on it's Northern end. We are currently at a separation point, a faster option would go further North, but the safer and more comfortable route a bit further South. —Axel Hackbarth

Good night from the Atlantic Ocean

Day 7. Aug 20, 2019

About halfway across the Atlantic Ocean. Very pleasant conditions. —Greta Thunberg

The whole trip is a bucket challenge. Thank god, we have more than one. —Boris Herrmann

Daily life on board. Drawing and playing games. —Boris Herrmann

Day 6. Aug 19, 2019

Sunshine sailing north of the Azores! —*Greta Thunberg

Some say it's like a roller coaster, others are just surfin' to the USA —Boris Herrmann

Day 5. Aug 18, 2019

Pos 42° 55‘ N 022° 12‘ W. A sunny day with nice winds. —Greta Thunberg

Sunday: getting ready for a nice Sunday meal. Last night we still did 24 knots surfing under the bright moon. Team sleeping well & tuning into this special lifestyle of rollercoaster camping. Teeth brushing, squats & music playing board games and chat all day with Pierre. —Boris Herrmann

Drone shot from Malizia II sailing into the night and onwards to New York

Day 4. Aug 17, 2019

After a rough day at sea the team are all happy and feeling much better. No one has been sick but we all felt a bit off! Thinking of you all back on land —Boris Herrmann

Pos 46° 20‘ N 015° 46‘ W

Eating and sleeping well and no sea sickness so far. Life on Malizia II is like camping on a roller coaster!

—Greta Thunberg

When you have no wind and your drifting around... !!! Ahh the contrast to yesterday.... gives some time to slow the boat to have a wash and play some games... which Greta keeps winning! —Boris Herrmann

Day 2. Aug 16, 2019

100 nautical miles west of Cape Finisterre. A very bumpy night but I slept surprisingly well. Some dolphins showed up and swam along the boat last night! —Greta Thunberg

The team are experiencing some uncomfortable conditions and everyone is feeling a bit seasick but nothing too bad or unexpected. We are taking it easy and waiting for the conditions to calm. —Boris Herrmann

Day 1. Aug 15, 2019

We are on our way! ‬

‪ Leaving Plymouth and heading for New York.

—Greta Thunberg

All is well on the boat, good vibes and no sea sickness. I’m on watch now sailing along in the dark with everyone asleep. —Pierre

The night was bouncy and rough, but mostly everyone got some sleep. We are trying to find an organisation of space and storage and life.Everything is slow motion: dressing, cooking, etc. All ok so far and we will get used. —Boris Herrmann

Related content

• Windy founder's message to Greta Thunberg
• 3,000 miles long zero carbon journey. All you need to know about Greta's mission
• Watch Greta Thunberg leaving Plymouth

https://www.windy.com/annotation/5d650b73bed868001abd48fd

According to Rasmus Tonboe's tweet, climate researcher Steffen M. Olsen had a tough job in North West Greenland this year while he was retrieving an oceanographic moorings and weather station on sea ice. "Rapid melt and sea ice with low permeability and few cracks leaves the melt water on top", Tonboe adds in his tweet.

In a huge thread below the tweet, Steffen M. Olsen, who is also the author of the heartbreaking picture, gives us more details about the conditions at the spot.

We know the ice is around 1.2m thick and that we have about 870m water below us. Together with the local hunters we have been meassuring also ice thickness from December to now. An ongoing activity for almost a decade now.

The photo was taken on Thursday 13th june around mid afternoon local time on sea ice, near Qaanaaq, middle of Inglefield Fjord, 77N.

https://www.windy.com/annotation/5d0b61202292900019bc4c58