July was world’s hottest on record
Published: 04:08 PM,Aug 08,2023 | EDITED : 08:08 PM,Aug 08,2023
BRUSSELS: Last month was the hottest July on record, with abnormally high temperatures recorded on both land and sea, the European Union’s Copernicus climate change panel said on Tuesday.
Scientists warned late last month that it was on track to become the world’s hottest month on record. This year has been the third-warmest year to date, Copernicus deputy head Samantha Burgess said. “We just witnessed global air temperatures and global ocean surface temperatures set new all-time records in July,” she said.
“It shows the urgency for ambitious efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, which are the main driver behind these records.” June had also smashed through the previous temperature record for that month, according to Copernicus, which bases its calculations on a dataset going back to 1950.
Sweltering temperatures have affected considerable swathes of the planet, with heat records registered from Death Valley in the US state of California to a northwest China township as Canada and southern Europe battle wildfires.
The world’s hottest day to date was July 6, 2023, with a global average temperature of 17.08 degrees, according to the data.
The effects of the unusually hot weather have been visible in the last month as wildfires ravaged Europe, flash foods hit Pakistan and a typhoon landed in China, the Philippines and Taiwan.
The Copernicus records only go back to 1940, but researchers can build an index of historical climate change using tree rings and air bubbles in glaciers.
This research suggests that July’s temperatures are unprecedented going back thousands of years, said Carlos Buontempo, who serves as director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, in late July. According to Copernicus, the temperature over land in July was 0.72 degrees above the average for the years 1991 to 2020 globally, and 0.51degrees higher for the ocean temperature about 10 metres below the surface.
The Copernicus data is based on computer-generated analyses that include measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world. The agency had released preliminary data for the month on July 27. The US climate agency NOAA is set to publish its own data for July in mid-August.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva has meanwhile not ruled out that 2023 will be hotter than the last record year 2016, when the average temperature was 1.3 degrees above pre-industrial levels. — dpa
Scientists warned late last month that it was on track to become the world’s hottest month on record. This year has been the third-warmest year to date, Copernicus deputy head Samantha Burgess said. “We just witnessed global air temperatures and global ocean surface temperatures set new all-time records in July,” she said.
“It shows the urgency for ambitious efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, which are the main driver behind these records.” June had also smashed through the previous temperature record for that month, according to Copernicus, which bases its calculations on a dataset going back to 1950.
Sweltering temperatures have affected considerable swathes of the planet, with heat records registered from Death Valley in the US state of California to a northwest China township as Canada and southern Europe battle wildfires.
The world’s hottest day to date was July 6, 2023, with a global average temperature of 17.08 degrees, according to the data.
The effects of the unusually hot weather have been visible in the last month as wildfires ravaged Europe, flash foods hit Pakistan and a typhoon landed in China, the Philippines and Taiwan.
The Copernicus records only go back to 1940, but researchers can build an index of historical climate change using tree rings and air bubbles in glaciers.
This research suggests that July’s temperatures are unprecedented going back thousands of years, said Carlos Buontempo, who serves as director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, in late July. According to Copernicus, the temperature over land in July was 0.72 degrees above the average for the years 1991 to 2020 globally, and 0.51degrees higher for the ocean temperature about 10 metres below the surface.
The Copernicus data is based on computer-generated analyses that include measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world. The agency had released preliminary data for the month on July 27. The US climate agency NOAA is set to publish its own data for July in mid-August.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva has meanwhile not ruled out that 2023 will be hotter than the last record year 2016, when the average temperature was 1.3 degrees above pre-industrial levels. — dpa