It’s official. Meteorologists say this summer’s swelter was a global record breaker for high heat
The date is September 6th in Geneva.
Earth experienced its hottest summer ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere. This included a very hot August, which marked the end of a season with intense and deadly temperatures. This information comes from the World Meteorological Organization.
Last month was very hot, even hotter than any other August on record. It was the second hottest month ever measured, with July 2023 being the only month hotter. This announcement was made by the WMO and the European climate service Copernicus on Wednesday.
In simple terms, August was about 1. 5 degrees Celsius (2. 7 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than pre-industrial times. The world is trying to avoid surpassing this level of warming. But the 1. 5 C limit takes many years to reach, not just one month, so scientists do not see that short period as being very important.
The oceans, which cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, were recorded as the hottest ever. They reached a temperature of nearly 21 degrees Celsius (69. 8 degrees Fahrenheit) and have set high temperature records for three months in a row, according to the WMO and Copernicus.
“The hot days of summer are not just causing complaints, they are also causing troubles,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement. “The climate is starting to break down. ”
According to Copernicus, 2023 is the second warmest year ever recorded, with 2016 being the hottest.
Scientists say that the Earth is getting hotter because of climate change caused by humans burning coal, oil, and natural gas. This is worsened by a temporary warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean called El Nino, which affects weather all over the world. Normally, an El Nino makes the earth warmer, especially in its second year. This year, El Nino started early.
“What we are seeing, not just new extreme events but also the continuous occurrence of these extremely unusual conditions, and the effects they have on both humans and the environment, are a direct result of the global increase in temperature,” explained Carlo Buontempo, the director of Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Copernicus, a part of the European Union’s space program, has records dating back to 1940. However, in the United Kingdom and the United States, global records go back to the mid-1800s. Weather and science agencies in these countries are expected to report soon that this summer’s weather was the hottest on record.
Scientists used different methods like studying tree rings, ice cores, and other proxies to figure out that the current temperatures are hotter than they have been for the past 120,000 years. In the past, the world was warmer than it is now, but this happened before there were humans. During that time, the seas were higher and the poles were not covered in ice.
The University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyser says that the temperatures in September are higher than they have ever been recorded before.
The WMO stated that while the air and oceans in the world were getting hotter and breaking records, Antarctica was still breaking records for having very little sea ice. The text is about to be rewritten in simple words, but there is no specific content provided to rewrite.
