After many heatwaves hit different parts of Europe in July, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) declared it the hottest globally.
This record-breaking monthly global average temperature of 16.95 degrees Celsius was set in April and is 0.33 degrees Celsius higher than the previous record set in January. Greece, France, Italy, and Spain were among the European countries whose highs last week hit or beyond 40 degrees Celsius.
Wildfires forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Rhodes and other Greek islands. Even though it is still winter, high temperatures were also reported in South American countries.
As reported by C3S, July’s average temperature was 1.50 degrees Celsius warmer than average from 1850 to 1900 and 0.72 degrees warmer from 1991 to 2020.
These extreme events, which some believe are getting more frequent and powerful, could have devastating consequences for humankind and the planet.
There was less freezing this winter in the Antarctic than in any winter since satellites began collecting data in 1979, and that trend continued into July.
Some scientists have found that the Antarctic environment will continue to suffer from extreme weather and have global ramifications if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced. There is a debate on whether excess carbon dioxide leads to warming or warming leads to excess carbon dioxide.
Temperatures in 2023 were 0.43 degrees Celsius above average, making it “the third warmest year to date,” as stated by Burgess. Further, July’s global average temperature was 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. It is theorized that the cause of these record-breaking temperatures is a rise in the Earth’s average surface temperature due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, warned last month that the “era of global boiling has arrived” and the “warming of the planet” has ended.
