After the warmest June on the planet so far, July also started in record mode. According to the first data from various observation organizations, the mark for the average daily temperature on earth has already been broken twice this week. 16.9 degrees Celsius was reached on Monday. On Tuesday they exceeded 17, explains Carlo Buontempo, director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. It is not necessary to go far back in time to find the previous mark: 16.8 degrees on August 14, 2016. These records, so close in time, provide further evidence of the global warming caused by humans with their greenhouse gases has led to a climate crisis, which is also reflected in ever stronger and more frequent extreme weather events.
But Buontempo points out that the underlying climate change has been joined by another phenomenon in recent weeks: extreme warming of the North Atlantic that has surprised experts. “Due to the exceptionally warm conditions in the North Atlantic, we have entered uncharted territory,” reads an article published by Copernicus on Thursday.
More and more experts are using the phrase “uncharted territory” to talk about what is happening on the planet in this climate crisis. But what does that mean? “None of us, none of the people who are still alive, had to live in a climate like this,” Buontempo replies. “Climate change is often said to be something that’s going to happen in a few years, in a few decades, but no, it’s happening now and the climate is very different from our parents’ or our grandparents’ or ours.” have experienced so far”.
Already in May, sea surface temperatures around the world were higher than any previous May on record. This phenomenon continued in June, with even larger anomalies, when the temperature in the North Atlantic was 0.9 degrees above the reference period (1991-2020). “The anomalous heat in the north-east of the Atlantic Ocean is particularly surprising at 1.36 degrees above average,” enthuses Copernicus.
The extreme heat in the North Atlantic is one of the hallmarks of June. And while the causes are still under investigation, Copernicus points to several factors, such as changes in the airflow in the atmosphere and the clear impact of climate change due to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases.
Buontempo claims that if temperatures had not soared in this part of the Atlantic there is a very good chance that “the temperature peak now being observed” would not have happened and that it has led to two new daily records this week. Although this expert insists that there is a “combination of factors” that means the end of the La Niña phenomenon and the beginning of favorable conditions for the occurrence of El Niño, which consists of a rise in temperature in tropical areas of the Pacific Ocean and this also has global consequences.
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In the last three years, the climate has been largely influenced by La Niña, which has had a cooling effect on the entire planet and has somewhat mitigated climate change. But the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported this week that the favorable conditions for El Niño to develop have already begun, although there is still some uncertainty as to whether the onset of this phenomenon will be officially announced, which will take place over the course of this year month could happen.
During El Niño, a rise in temperature is to be expected. This week in 2016 was not only the warmest day on record, but also the warmest year since reliable records began in the 19th century. “There is a 98 percent probability that at least one of the next five years will exceed the temperature record set in 2016, when there was an exceptionally intense El Niño episode,” the WMO has already pointed out.
Highest temperatures in 70 years
Referring to this week’s two daily temperature records, Buontempo points out that the method they use allows us to safely go back to the last 70 years and find that there are no precedents for such warm days. However, he adds that it is “very likely” that these are the days with the highest average temperatures in at least 150 years, although in this case the dates are a bit more uncertain.
This uncharted territory that the planet the experts are talking about has trodden will, from time to time, make headlines in the media relating to heat records. For example, last month was the warmest June on Earth since the industrial age began in the 19th century. “After three years of La Niña, where global temperatures have tended to be lower, and now that we are entering El Niño territory, experiencing temperature spikes is not entirely unexpected, but something to be imagined,” says Buontempo.
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