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The world
just had the hottest week on record, according to preliminary data. It
follows the hottest June on record, with unprecedented sea surface
temperatures and record low Antarctic sea ice extent. The record-breaking temperatures on land and in the ocean have potentially
devastating impacts on ecosystems and the environment. They highlight the
far-reaching changes taking place in Earth’s system as a result of
human-induced climate change. “The exceptional warmth in June and at the start of July occurred at the
onset of the development of El Niño, which is expected to further fuel the heat
both on land and in the oceans and lead to more extreme temperatures and
marine heatwaves,” said Prof. Christopher Hewitt, WMO Director of Climate
Services. “We are in uncharted territory and we can expect more records to fall as El
Niño develops further and these impacts will extend into 2024,” he said.
“This is worrying news for the planet,” he said. According to provisional analysis based on reanalysis data from Japan
named JRA-3Q, the average global temperature on 7 July was
17.24 degrees Celsius. This is 0.3°C above the previous record of 16.94 °C
on 16 August 2016 – a strong El Niño year. The Japanese reanalysis data was made available to WMO and is not yet
confirmed. But it is consistent with preliminary data from the Copernicus
ECMWF ERA5 dataset. Comparisons of daily global mean temperature are typically only
available from combining observations from satellites etc with computer
model simulations, into datasets called reanalyses. WMO uses a combination
of reanalysis datasets with global observations from land surface stations
and ships for its State of the Climate reports and to assess global
temperatures. « According to various datasets from our partners in different parts
of the world, the first week of July set a new record in terms of daily
temperatures,” said Dr Omar Baddour, chief of climate monitoring at WMO.
“The WMO and wider scientific community are closely watching these dramatic
changes in different components of the climate system, and sea surface
temperatures,” he told a media briefing.
Hottest
June
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