July was the hottest month on Earth since records have been recorded, the European Copernicus service reported today.
Last month, marked by heat waves and fires around the world, was 0,33°C warmer than the month that held the record so far (July 2019, when an average of 16,63°C was recorded ). The air temperature was also 0,72°C warmer than the average (1991-2020) in July, Copernicus indicated.
Already on July 27, even before the end of the month, scientists had considered "extremely likely" that this was the hottest month on record, in the set of all seasons.
A fact that led António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, to state that Humanity had left the era of global warming behind to enter the era of “global boiling”.
The oceans are also witnessing this worrying development, with abnormally high surface temperatures since April and unprecedented levels in July. On July 30, an absolute record of 20,96°C was set and, for the month as a whole, the surface temperature was 0,51°C higher than the average (1991-2020).
“We just saw new records for global air and ocean surface temperatures in July. These records have disastrous consequences for people and for the planet, which is exposed to more frequent and more intense extreme phenomena”, underlined the deputy director of the Copernicus European Climate Change Monitoring Service, Samantha Burgess.
Signs of global warming caused by human activities – starting with the use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) – appear all over the world: in Greece, partially devastated by the flames, as well as in Canada, which also suffered terrible floods; visible in the overwhelming heat in southern Europe, northern Africa, the southern United States and a part of China, which shortly after suffered torrential rains.
Copernicus also reported that Antarctic ice mass reached the lowest extent for a month of July since satellite observations began, 15% below the average for the month.
Samantha Burgess also pointed out that “2023 is currently the third warmest year, with 0,43°C above the recent average” and “a global average temperature in July 1,5°C above pre-industrial levels”.
The value of 1,5°C is highly symbolic as it is the most ambitious limit set by the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming. However, the threshold referred to in this international agreement refers to averages over many years and not just a single month.
"Even if all this is only temporary, it shows the urgency of making ambitious efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, the main cause of these records", concluded Samantha Burgess.
The year 2023 may not have finished breaking records. “We expect a relatively warm end of the year in 2023 due to the development of the El Nino phenomenon”, stressed Copernicus.
This cyclical weather phenomenon over the Pacific is synonymous with additional global warming.
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