The boreal summer (summer in the northern hemisphere) of 2023 (technically understood as the months of June, July and August) comes to occupy, prominently, the first place in the list of warmest quarters recorded so far on the planet as a whole, as reported by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (Copernicus Program) of the European Union.
The June-July-August (JJA) 2023 season was the warmest recorded globally by a wide margin, with an average temperature of 16.77°C, that is, 0.66°C above average, it details. the newsletter published by Copernicus. It should be noted that when the S3C refers to the “highest temperature on record” or “warmest season on record” it refers to the data recorded with modern temperature monitoring systems, that is, in the last approximately 100 years (for some stations and satellite data, the period with reliable records is shorter).
“The European average summer temperature was 19.63°C, 0.83°C above average, the fifth warmest of the summer season. JJA 2023 has seen record sea surface temperature anomalies (SST) in the North Atlantic and in the global ocean”.
August 2023 was the warmest August on record globally and warmer than all other months except July 2023, the C3S bulletin states.
The global mean surface air temperature of 16.82°C for August 2023 was 0.71°C warmer than the August 1991-2020 average and 0.31°C warmer than the previous warmest August of 2016.
The month is estimated to have been around 1.5°C warmer than the pre-industrial average for the period 1850-1900.
Heat waves have been present this summer in multiple regions of the northern hemisphere, including southern Europe, the southern United States and Japan.
Temperatures well above average were recorded in Australia, several South American countries and around much of Antarctica, Copernicus indicates.
Simultaneously, and in a clear relationship, sea surface water and air temperatures were well above average in several other regions.
The global temperature anomaly for the first eight months of 2023 (January-August) is the second warmest on record, just 0.01°C below 2016, currently the warmest year on record.
According to Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S): “Global temperature records will continue to fall in 2023, and the warmest August followed the warmest July and June, leading to the warmest boreal summer. According to our data record, we go back to 1940. Currently, 2023 ranks as the second warmest, just 0.01°C behind 2016, with four months left in the year.
Meanwhile, the global ocean recorded its warmest daily surface temperature on record in August and is the warmest month on record. “The scientific evidence is overwhelming: we will continue to see more climate records and more intense and frequent extreme weather events that will impact society and ecosystems, until we stop emitting greenhouse gases.”
