Earth’s average temperature remained at a record high on Wednesday following two consecutive days of unofficial record-breaking temperatures. This serves as another piece of evidence highlighting the extreme effects of climate change. According to the Climate Reanalyzer tool from the University of Maine, the global average temperature reached 62.9 degrees, matching the previous day’s record and surpassing Monday’s record of 62.6 degrees.
In addition, the European Union’s climate monitoring service reported that last month, June, was the hottest June on record. The statement from the EU monitor’s C3S climate unit stated that June 2023 exceeded the previous record set in June 2019 by a significant margin.
Scientists have been warning for months about the possibility of record-breaking heat in 2023 due to human-caused climate change. The burning of fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, and oil has contributed significantly to warming the atmosphere. Additionally, the transition from La Niña to El Niño, characterized by warming oceans, has further exacerbated the situation, with record warmth observed in the North Atlantic this year.
Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field, who was not involved in the calculations, stated that a record like this provides more evidence to support the widely accepted idea that global warming is leading us into a hotter future.
Although the daily figures presented by the Climate Reanalyzer tool are unofficial, they provide a useful snapshot of the current state of a warming world. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) chief scientist Sarah Kapnick acknowledged the significance of these figures, stating that NOAA will consider them in its official record calculations. Considering other data available, Kapnick suggests that these temperatures could be the highest experienced in several hundred years.
While scientists typically rely on longer-term measurements to track Earth’s warming, the daily high temperatures serve as an indicator that climate change is pushing us into uncharted territory.
Some regions have experienced extreme heatwaves. Quebec and Peru recently broke high-temperature records. Beijing reported a nine-day period of temperatures exceeding 95 degrees, leading to a suspension of outdoor work. In communities unaccustomed to such heat, like North Grenville, Ontario, ice hockey rinks have been converted into cooling centers.
Many parts of the United States, from Medford, Oregon, to Tampa, Florida, have also been experiencing near-record high temperatures. However, according to the Climate Reanalyzer data, the largest temperature anomalies have been observed over the world’s oceans, particularly the Antarctic Ocean.
Raghu Murtugudde, a professor of atmospheric, oceanic, and earth system science, explained that strong wind fronts over the Southern Ocean had pushed warm air deeper south, resulting in unusual temperatures over the oceans and around the Antarctic. He also highlighted that oceans are absorbing 93% of the additional heat generated by increasing greenhouse gases and have become a significant reservoir of heat.
While some areas, such as southeast Australia and much of India, experienced unusually cold weather for this time of year, the average temperature of 62.9 degrees may not seem excessively hot, especially when some places are seeing temperatures near 100.4 degrees. However, this global high is nearly 1.8 degrees higher than the 1979-2000 average, which had already exceeded the averages of the 20th and 19th centuries.
Furthermore, the director of emergency management for Seminole County, Florida, Alan Harris, noted that the county has already surpassed last year’s number of extreme weather plan activations, indicating the prolonged period of brutal heat.
Heat advisories and warnings have been issued across various regions of the United States, emphasizing the severity of the heatwave.
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