The world just had the hottest week on record in early July, according to preliminary data from World Meteorological Organization (WMO) scientists. All this occurs after the month of June has been the hottest on record and in which no-surface temperatures have been measured in the surface layers of the sea while the extent of sea ice in Antarctica has had record lows.
The record temperatures reached on land and in the ocean potentially have impacts that can be “devastating on ecosystems and the environment,” says the World Meteorological Organization when assessing these data. All of this serves as an example of the “far-reaching changes” that are taking place “in the Earth system as a result of human-induced climate change.”
“The exceptional heat of June and early July came at the beginning of the development of El Niño, which is expected to further fuel both land and ocean heat, leading to more extreme temperatures and marine heat waves. ”, said Christopher Hewitt, director of climate services at WMO.
“We are in uncharted territory and we can expect more records to fall as El Niño further develops and these impacts extend into 2024,” he said. “This is worrying news for the planet.”
According to a provisional analysis based on reanalysis data from the Japanese Weather Services (JRA-3Q), the average global temperature on July 7 was 17.24 degrees Celsius. This is 0.3°C above the previous record of 16.94°C on August 16, 2016, a year highlighted by the impact of El Niño.
The data from the Japanese reanalysis was made available to the WMO and has yet to be confirmed. But they are consistent with preliminary data from the Copernicus Service dataset (ERA5/ECMWF)
“According to various data sets from our partners in different parts of the world, the first week of July set a new record in terms of daily temperatures,” said Omar Baddour, WMO’s head of climate monitoring. “WMO and the wider scientific community are closely watching these dramatic changes in different components of the climate system and sea surface temperatures,” he told a news conference.
A report from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, a close collaborator of the World Meteorological Organization, showed that June 2023 was just over 0.5°C above the 1991-2020 average, surpassing the previous record. June 2019.
In June there were record temperatures for this month in northwestern Europe, according to Copernicus. Parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Asia, and eastern Australia were significantly warmer than normal.
Still, June wasn’t the hottest everywhere, in fact it was colder than normal in some places, including western Australia, the western United States and western Russia.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service report, implemented by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, highlighted that North Atlantic sea surface temperatures were unprecedented.
Global sea surface temperatures reached record levels for the time of year in both May and June. And all this will have impacts both on the distribution of fisheries and the ocean circulation in general, with collateral effects on the climate.
“It’s not just the surface temperature, but the entire ocean is heating up and absorbing energy that will stay there for hundreds of years,” says the WMO information. The alarm “is sounding especially loud due to the unprecedented sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic.”
“Temperatures in the North Atlantic are unprecedented and cause for great concern. They are much higher than models predicted,” said Michael Sparrow, head of WMO’s Department of Global Climate Research. dominated in ecosystems and fisheries and in our climate,” he said.
“The North Atlantic is one of the key drivers of extreme weather. With the warming of the Atlantic, there is an increasing probability of more hurricanes and tropical cyclones. The North Atlantic sea surface temperature is associated with heavy rainfall or drought in West Africa,” Baddour said.
Extreme marine heatwaves were observed around Ireland, the UK and the Baltic Sea in June, according to the monthly Copernicus Climate Change report.
The heat in the North Atlantic is caused by a combination of short-term anomalous circulation in the atmosphere and long-term changes in the ocean, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service assessment. However, it is not thought to be related to the El Niño phenomenon, which has recently awakened in the tropical Pacific and is expected to influence temperatures later in the year and into 2024.
