July 2023 was the warmest month in Earth's history

The month of July 2023 was the warmest globally on record and broke all previous records for global air temperature, ice cover and hydrological variables, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). , which highlights that the anomaly with respect to pre-industrial times was 1.5ºC, which was the limit objective until the end of the century agreed by the international community in the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.

The Copernicus monthly report shows that July 2023 was 0.72 degrees Celsius (ºC) warmer than the average for the current reference period, 1991-2020, and was even 0.33ºC higher than the previous warmest July to date. , which is 2019.

In addition, heat waves were recorded in multiple regions of the Northern Hemisphere, including southern Europe, while temperatures in several South American countries and around much of Antarctica were well above average.

Along the same lines as the air temperature, the sea surface temperature also reached new records, as it continued to rise and did so after a long period of unusually high temperatures since April 2023 and exceeded the world average by 0, 51ºC the temperature of the reference period 1991-2020.

In the North Atlantic, sea water in June was 1.05ºC above average and temperatures in the northeast of that ocean remained above average, while in the northwest Atlantic they were unusually high, according to Copernicus study.

The European Climate Change Service recorded heat waves in the sea south of Greenland and in the Labrador Sea, as well as in the Caribbean basin and in the Mediterranean Sea, while signs of the El Niño weather phenomenon continued to be recorded in the eastern equatorial Pacific.

Regarding sea ice, Copernicus indicates that the extent of Antarctic sea ice continued to break records for this time of year as it had 15 percent less ice than average.. “It is the lowest extent, by far, for a month of July since satellite observations began,” the monthly report highlights.

Zones

By areas, the largest anomaly, that is, where there was the least concentration of sea ice, was in the northern Weddel Sea, in the eastern Bellingshausen Sea and in the northern Ross Sea.. In contrast, in the Amundsen Sea sector the concentration of sea ice continued to be above average.

In this sense, he adds that the extent of sea ice in the Arctic was slightly below average, but well above the historical minimum reached in July 2020.. By area, sea ice concentrations were below average across most of the Arctic Ocean, unlike off the north coast of Siberia where above average concentrations were recorded.

On the other hand, regarding the hydrology of the month of July, Copernicus CS3 concludes that July 2023 was wetter than average in most of Northern Europe as well as in the region between the Black Sea and Ukraine. to northwestern Russia.

The Mediterranean basin, for its part, registered drier conditions than average and the greatest anomalies were registered in Italy and southeastern Europe.. Outside of Europe, this past month was, however, wetter than average in northeastern North America, Afghanistan, Pakistan, northwest China, northern and eastern Australia, and Chile.

On the other hand, the extratropical regions that were drier than average were Mexico and the southeastern United States, central and southeastern Asia, southwestern Australia, and parts of southern Brazil and Paraguay.

dire consequences

After releasing the monthly balance, the deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, Samantha Burgess, has warned of the “dire consequences for both people and the planet” that are exposed to increasingly frequent extreme phenomena in intense with these “new all-time records in July” in air and ocean temperatures.

Specifically, Burgess explains that for the moment 2023 is the third warmest year to date, with a temperature that is 0.43ºC above the recent average and that it is 1.5ºC above the levels prior to the industrial Revolution.

In this sense, he added that when the averages for the calendar year are compared, from January to July, the world average is the third highest ever recorded, with 0.43ºC above the average for the period 1991-2020 compared to 0 0.49ºC in 2016 and 0.48ºC in 2020.

Although the difference between 2023 and 2016 is expected to narrow in the coming months, since the last few months of 2016 were “relatively cool” to reduce the annual average to 0.44ºC, while the rest of 2023 is expected to be relatively warm due to El Niño.

“Although temporary, it demonstrates the urgency of making ambitious efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, which are primarily responsible for these records,” he urged.