July 2023 easily broke the record for the hottest month on record on Earth, with 0.33ºC more than the previous record of July 2019, announced this Tuesday, August 8, the European Copernicus observatory.
Last month was also marked by heat waves and fires around the world, with average air temperatures a 0.72º C higher than the July averages between 1991 and 2020.
Suspense among specialists was low, for on July 27, even before the end of the month, scientists had considered “extremely likely” that July 2023 would be the warmest month on record.
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The average for the month of July 2019, the previous record, was 16.63º C.
If the paleoclimatology database is used as a reference, “It hasn’t been this hot in 120,000 years”explained Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the European Copernicus Service on Climate Change (C3S), at a press conference.
In the recent words of the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, humanity has left the era of global warming to enter that of “global boil”.
The oceans are also victims of this worrying phenomenon: the temperatures registered at the sea surface have been abnormally high since April and the levels registered in July are unprecedented.
The absolute record was broken on July 30, with 20.96 ° C. Throughout the month, the sea surface temperature was 0.51°C above the average (1991-2020).
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Extreme events in July 2023
“We have just witnessed new records for both global air and ocean surface temperatures in July. These records have dire consequences for populations and the planet, which are exposed to more extreme, frequent and intense events,” said Samantha Burgess about this month of July 2023.
Signs of global warming caused by human activities – starting with the use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) – have appeared simultaneously all over the world.
AFP.
