Hottest June on record driven by climate change, El Nino
4 Min Read
Since the mid-1800s, the earth has warmed by approximately 1.2 degrees Celsius, causing severe weather changes.
-
Firefighters battling a wildfire (AP)
The globe saw its warmest June on record last month, according to the EU's climate monitoring service, as climate change and the El Nino weather pattern appeared to be driving the blazing temperatures.
According to preliminary data from the EU monitor Copernicus, Tuesday was the warmest day ever recorded, breaking the previous day's record.
Since the mid-1800s, the earth has warmed by approximately 1.2 degrees Celsius, causing severe weather changes.
It's the latest in a string of records set halfway through the year, which has also witnessed a drought in Spain and scorching temperatures in China and the United States.
Read more: Europe's 2021 summer was the hottest ever recorded
In a statement from its C3S climate unit, the EU monitor stated that "the month was the warmest June globally at just over 0.5 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, exceeding June 2019 -– the previous record -– by a substantial margin."
According to Copernicus, Northwest Europe saw temperatures that surpassed June records, and areas of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Asia, and eastern Australia were "significantly warmer than normal."
Surprisingly, in Western Australia, the Western United States, and Western Russia, colder-than-average temperatures were recorded.
The records are a result of global warming caused by greenhouse gases emitted by human activities.
According to Copernicus, early data revealed a worldwide average temperature of 17.03 °C on Tuesday, breaking a previous record of 16.88 °C set on Monday.
Extreme marine heat waves
Copernicus reported that worldwide sea surface temperatures in June were greater than any year before, with "extreme marine heat waves" across Ireland, Britain, and the Baltic.
According to Julien Nicolas, a C3S scientist, the record in June was caused by "very warm ocean surface temperatures" in the Pacific and Atlantic caused by El Nino.
Nicolas explained to AFP that low winds prevented the heated surface of the Atlantic from mixing with cooler water lower below, adding that "on top of that is this warming trend of the ocean absorbing 90 percent of heat released by human activity," he added.
He concluded that the worldwide temperature was 0.53 degrees Celsius above the 30-year normal, at 16.51 degrees Celsius (61.72 degrees Fahrenheit).
"June 2023 is way above the others. This is the kind of anomaly we are not used to," he added.
The Secretary-General of the UN's World Meteorological Organization, Petteri Taalas believes that El Nino "will greatly increase the likelihood of breaking temperature records and triggering more extreme heat in many parts of the world and in the ocean."
Taalas asked governments "to mobilize preparations to limit the impacts on our health, our ecosystems, and our economies."
El Nino is a naturally occurring phenomenon that causes increasing temperatures across the planet, as well as drought in some areas and excessive precipitation in others.
Furthermore, human activity, mostly the combustion of fossil fuels, generates around 40 billion tonnes of planet-warming CO2 into the atmosphere each year.
Record temperatures come with many unfavorable side effects such as wilted crops, melting glaciers, increased wildfires, as well as health concerns like heatstroke and dehydration to cardiovascular stress.
In the US, officials reported the death of 13 people in Texas and Louisiana from extreme heat. Beijing saw temperatures close to 40 degrees Celsius, prompting heat alerts.
In the UK, England had some water restrictions imposed in southeastern areas, while Scotland had some areas under water scarcity alert.
