The planet had its warmest July on record “by a long shot” — and very likely also had its warmest-ever month in 174 years of record-keeping — in line with NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The striking data, presented Monday by scientists from each agencies, indicate that last month smashed Earth’s previous July record by greater than one-third of a degree Fahrenheit — a figure that could appear small but represents a staggering leap within the context of worldwide records.
The brand new milestone follows what was the hottest June in recorded history, and is just the newest in a series of worrying climate extremes in recent months, including record-warmth internationally’s oceans.
“Last month was way, way warmer than anything we have ever seen,” Sarah Kapnick, NOAA’s chief scientist, said Monday in a news briefing, adding that July is often the planet’s warmest month of the 12 months. Provided that, “it’s totally likely that July 2023 was hotter than any month in any 12 months since not less than 1850,” she said.
NASA and NOAA together found that last month’s average global surface temperature was 2.02 degrees Fahrenheit above the Twentieth-century average. This was the primary time a mean July temperature recorded 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1 degree Celsius, above the long-term average, in line with NOAA.
Last month was also the fourth consecutive month that global ocean surface temperatures hit a record high, the scientists said. NOAA said July 2023 had the best monthly sea surface temperature anomaly, which is a measure of how much warmer or cooler temperatures are from the long-term average, at 1.78 degrees Fahrenheit.
Carlos Del Castillo, chief of the Ocean Ecology Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said the past 10 years have been the warmest decade for the world’s oceans for the reason that Eighteen Eighties. This trend in ocean warming carries far-reaching consequences, he said.
“Because the oceans heat, the water expands, and if you mix that with the melting of ice over land, that contributes to increases in sea-level rise,” Del Castillo said, adding that rising seas can trigger coastal flooding and coastal erosion. Changes in ocean temperatures may have enormous impacts on marine species and their broader ecosystems, he said.
The brand new July records were driven by long-term, human-caused global warming but were also amplified by a naturally occurring climate pattern called El Niño. This phenomenon is characterised by warm ocean surface temperatures in parts of the Pacific Ocean and tends to spice up global temperatures and influence weather conditions world wide.
Forecasters at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center have said there’s a greater than 95% likelihood that El Niño will proceed through winter within the Northern Hemisphere.
Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Recent York, said the largest impacts of El Niño will likely occur next 12 months.
“So we’re anticipating that not only is 2023 going to be exceptionally warm, and possibly a record-warm 12 months, but we anticipate that 2024 will likely be warmer still,” he said.
The brand new July records are stark on their very own, but in addition they follow a broader warming trend that has been playing out in recent many years.
Last month was the forty seventh consecutive July, and the 533rd consecutive overall month, with temperatures above the Twentieth-century average, in line with NOAA.
“The really essential thing to recollect is that July 2023 is just the newest in a long run of extremely warm months and years going back several many years,” Kapnick said.
The NOAA chief scientist added that while El Niño events only temporarily warm the planet — compounding background warming from human-caused climate change — the events of 2023 offer a grim outlook on the results of such accelerated changes to the world’s climate.
“A 12 months like this provides us a glimpse at how rising temperatures and heavier rains can impact our society and stress critical infrastructure over the following decade,” she said. “It is important to do not forget that these years will likely be cool by comparison by the center of the century if we proceed to warm our planet as greenhouse gas emissions proceed.”