The European Union Climate Observatory presented its report on Tuesday, 8 August. According to the data, July was 0.33 degrees Celsius warmer The record was broken in July 2019, when the average temperature was 16.63 degrees Celsius. At the time, the main cause was called the arrival of El Niño, which is the cyclical warming of ocean waters, which, with it, causes worldwide warming of the atmosphere. The reasons for the current record are similar, but in general they are exacerbated by human-induced global warming.

Hot July and heat waves

As Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, points out, this is a paleoclimatic record not only of our observations over the past few hundred years: geological analysis shows that such a temperature has not been experienced for long. at least the last 120,000 years.

• The July 2023 average temperature is the highest recorded for any month.
• The moon was about 1.5 degrees warmer than the 1850-1900 average.
• It’s also 0.72 degrees warmer than the 1991-2020 average.

Heatwaves have been observed in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, including Europe and the United States. Temperatures were well above average in a few South American countries and most of Antarctica.

The world’s oceans also set a new temperature record, raising concerns about the planet’s climate, its capacity to absorb carbon dioxide (cold water does better), marine life and other impacts on coastal communities. On July 30, the average surface temperature of the oceans rose to 20.96 degrees Celsius, according to data from the European Union’s climate observatory.

Global warming of 1.2 degrees Celsius, triggered by the burning of fossil fuels since the late 1800s, has made heat waves hotter, longer and more frequent, and has brought with it more extreme weather events such as storms and floods.

But in the end this is just the beginning scientists say the situation will worsen in the future. The El Niño period has no fixed duration and can last for several years, and humanity in no way reduces its greenhouse gas emissions.