Summer of 2023 ‘by a distance’ the warmest ever measured worldwide | Abroad

The old record, which dates from 2019, is about 0.2 degrees lower. During the first eight months of the year, the average temperature on earth was also ‘only 0.01°C lower than in 2016, the warmest year on record’. “It is likely that 2023 will be the warmest year (…) humanity has known,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy chief of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

Copernicus continuously analyzes measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world. The institute estimates that in this summer month the temperature on earth was about 1.5 degrees higher than before global warming started.

July of this year was the warmest month ever recorded, August 2023 is now the 2nd, Copernicus reports. Heat waves, droughts, floods or fires hit Asia, Europe and North America during that period. The southern hemisphere, where many heat records were broken in the middle of the Australian winter, was not spared.

The Copernicus database dates back to 1940, but can be compared to the climates of past millennia. These are determined using tree rings or ice cores. Based on this, “the three months we just experienced are the warmest for about 120,000 years, that is, since the beginning of human history,” said Burgess.

We are currently experiencing the La Niña weather phenomenon for the third year in a row. In addition, the sea surface temperatures in a part of the Pacific Ocean near the equator are lower than average. It is the opposite of El Niño, where ocean temperatures are actually higher. The warming was therefore partly masked by La Niña. Nevertheless, the years 2015-2022 were already the warmest on record.

Since April, the surface temperature of seas has risen sharply. From July 31 to August 31, that temperature even “exceeded the previous record set in March 2016 every day,” says Copernicus. “Warming of the oceans leads to warming of the atmosphere and an increase in humidity, which causes more intense precipitation and an increase in the energy available for tropical cyclones,” said Burgess.

Overheating also has consequences for biodiversity, she explains: “There are fewer nutrients in the ocean (..) and there is less oxygen.” That threatens the survival of fauna and flora. “Temperatures will continue to rise until we turn off the emissions tap,” says Burgess.

In Europe, despite heat waves and other weather extremes, no heat record was broken this summer. On average, the summer of 2023 is the fifth warmest summer ever on our continent.