July was slightly warmer than the same month in 2023, but it is “increasingly likely” that this will be the warmest year on record, the European Copernicus programme said on Thursday.
The streak of 13 consecutive months in which the average global surface temperature on Earth set new records “is over, but only by a hair’s breadth,” said the deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), Samantha Burgess, in a statement.
The C3S monthly bulletin highlighted that the average temperature in July was 16.91 degrees Celsius (ºC), just 0.04°C lower than the previous record set in July last year.
Copernicus warned New temperature records in Greece and Japan. and a heat wave that caused 21 deaths in 24 hours in Morocco, where temperatures of 48°C were recorded.
Heat was particularly high in the western United States and Canada, most of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, as well as eastern Antarctica and Europe, the continent that recorded its second-warmest July on record after July 2010.
Oh Last month was 1.48°C warmer than a normal July for the period 1850-1900.before humans began massively releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
“The overall context has not changed: our climate continues to warm,” Burgess noted.
“The devastating effects of climate change began long before 2023 and will continue until global greenhouse gas emissions reach carbon neutrality,” he added.
In addition to heat waves, there were recorded in July Record flooding in Pakistan and China, hurricanes such as Beryl that hit the Caribbean and the United States, deadly landslides in the state of Kerala, India, and megafires in California, in the southwestern United States.
In the past month, The world broke the record for the hottest day ever recorded on July 22-23..
The oceans, which absorb 90% of the excess heat generated by human activities, also continue to overheat.
The average ocean temperature in July was 20.88°C, the second highest monthly value for this month, just 0.01°C below the record set in 2023, after 15 consecutive monthly records.
Copernicus expressed concern that a further drop would be expected as the El Niño climate phenomenon, known for rising ocean temperatures, comes to an end.
The observatory noted that temperatures in the equatorial Pacific region began to drop, “indicating the development of ‘La Niña’,” a thermal oscillation phenomenon that normally contributes to the cooling of the planet.
Since January, the average global temperature on Earth’s surface has been 0.27°C warmer than in the same period of 2023, Copernicus noted. A sharp drop would be needed at the end of the year for 2024 to end below last year.
But “this has rarely happened” since measurements began, “making it increasingly likely that 2024 will be the warmest year on record,” the observatory concluded.
Source: Observadora
