July 2023 is confirmed as the hottest month on record to date

July 2023 widely broke the record for the hottest month recorded on Earth, with 0.33º C more than the previous record of July 2019, the European Copernicus observatory announced on Tuesday.

The past month was also marked by heat waves and fires around the world, with average air temperatures 0.72ºC higher than the July averages between 1991 and 2020.

The suspense among the specialists was low, since on July 27, even before the end of the month, the scientists had considered “extremely likely” making July 2023 the warmest month on record.

The average for the month of July 2019, the previous record, was 16.63º C.

If the paleoclimatology database is used as a reference, “It hasn’t been this hot in 120,000 years.”, explained Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the European Copernicus service on Climate Change (C3S), at a press conference.

In the recent words of the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, humanity has left the era of global warming to enter that of “global boil”.

The oceans are also victims of this worrying phenomenon: the temperatures registered at the sea surface have been abnormally high since April and the levels registered in July are unprecedented.

The absolute record was broken on July 30, with 20.96 ° C. Throughout the month, the sea surface temperature was 0.51°C above the average (1991-2020).

“Extreme events”

“We have just witnessed new records for both global air and ocean surface temperatures in July. These records have dire consequences for populations and the planet, which are exposed to more extreme, frequent and intense phenomena.said Samantha Burgess.

Signs of global warming caused by human activities – starting with the use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) – have appeared simultaneously all over the world.

Greece suffered great fires, like Canada, which on the other hand was the victim of terrible floods.

Successive heat waves in southern Europe, northern Africa, the southern United States and parts of China have been crushing.

The World Weather Attribution (WWA) scientific network has already concluded that the recent heat waves in Europe and the United States would have been “practically impossible” without the effect of human activity.

Copernicus also indicates that Antarctic sea ice has reached its lowest level in a month of July since the beginning of satellite observations, 15% below the average for that month.

“Emergency”

“2023 is the third warmest year so far with 0.43°C above the recent average. and “a global mean temperature in July of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levelsadds Samantha Burgess.

This 1.5°C figure is highly symbolic because it is the most ambitious limit set by the 2015 Paris agreement to limit global warming.

However, the threshold to which this international agreement refers refers to averages of many years and not of a single month.

“Although all this is only temporary, it shows the urgency of ambitious efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, which are the main cause of these records.”, concludes Samantha Burgess.

And the year 2023 may not have finished breaking records. “A relatively warm end to the year is expected by 2023 due to the development of the El Niño phenomenon”, recalls Copernicus.

This cyclical weather phenomenon over the Pacific is, in fact, synonymous with additional global warming.

Source: AFP