The high temperatures embrace large regions of Europe, from Germany to the Balkans. Germany’s meteorological services warned yesterday Tuesday about extreme heat in the Upper Rhine, while thermometers reached 40ºC in Sardinia. And, in parallel, the freezing level in the Alps has risen from 4,600 to 4,800 meters. Meanwhile, the world recorded the first days of July as the hottest week on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events in the northern hemisphere this summer. The heat is scorching from China to Texas, while floods hit New York and Delhi. High temperatures are on track to break heat records set in 2022 in Europe.
The decrease in flows in the great European rivers is one of the elements that focuses attention. The decrease in the flow of the Rhine can complicate the transport of energy products in Europe. The water level in Frankfurt may drop below one meter on Wednesday. In August last year it was below 40 centimeters, which makes this freight uneconomical for many barges. Low water levels restrict the volumes that barges can move. In Germany, the heatwave is expected to ease next week, after temperatures in Frankfurt reached 35.5°C. Even so, temperatures are expected to remain above normal across much of southern Europe.
The WMO reported that on July 7 the average daily temperature of the planet reached 17.24ºC, after two days of previous records. Thus, the previous record of 16.94°C, recorded on August 16, 2016, was exceeded by 0.3°C.
“Having verified that last week’s temperatures were probably the hottest in human history on Earth is the demonstration that we are in unknown territory, because we had never seen this global temperature before this week”, he points out to this newspaper Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Buontempo affirms that this warming has several causes; but he highlights, first of all, that after three years of the cold phase of the Pacific water temperature oscillation, this year “we are officially entering an El Niño phase”, a phenomenon that brings a warming in a large part of the planet, as announced by the WMO last week.
Two other factors influence the current warming. On the one hand, the “very extreme” temperatures located in some parts of the Southern Ocean and, on the other, the “quite exceptional” temperatures in the North Atlantic, from Iceland and Ireland to Senegal, affect and that affect us in a very direct way”. “The temperatures in the North Atlantic are unprecedented and cause great concern. They are much higher than the models predicted,” said Michael Sparrow, head of WMO’s global climate research area. “This will have a domino effect on ecosystems and fisheries and our climate,” he said.
Buontempo points out that the Earth has recently recorded the hottest week since there are reliable records (since 1979, the date from which we have satellite data). “But the climate before 1979, and also in 1940, was colder, so we can extend this record and it is very likely that it was also the week with the highest temperatures since we know how to write our history, of the last 10,000 years and, even, perhaps beyond”. Buontempo indicates that “we are heading for a steady rise in temperature”, so that “in a few weeks, a few months or maybe in a year we will pass this threshold and once again have the hottest day or the hottest week of the history”.
The WMO and the UK Met Office have already said that it is very likely that in the next 12 to 14 months, between 2023 and 2024, we will have another temperature peak. In fact, “all the temperature peaks on a global scale have coincided with an El Niño year” so, in view of this rise in temperatures “it is almost certain that we will have a maximum of temperatures”.
Copernicus showed that last June was the hottest in history; were recorded more than 0.5°C above the average (1991-2020), surpassing the previous record of June 2019.
