New temperature record
“Our climate is imploding faster”: Summer 2023 was hotter than ever
A tourist in Athens cools off at a public drinking fountain during his visit to the Temple of Olympian Zeus during the past heatwave
© Socrates Baltagiannis
It’s a new record: never since records began have three consecutive months been as hot as this year. 2023 could be the hottest year on record – and El Niño will exacerbate the trend.
From a global perspective, the summer of 2023 was by far the hottest since records began in 1940 EU climate change service Copernicus on Wednesday for the three months June to August. The average temperature during the period was 16.77 degrees and thus 0.66 degrees above average, again significantly higher than in the previous record year 2019 with 16.48 degrees.
“Global temperature records will continue to tumble in 2023,” said Copernicus Vice Director Samantha Burgess. “The warmest August follows the warmest July and June, leading to the warmest boreal summer on our dataset ending in 1940.” There have also been record-breaking sea surface temperature anomalies in the North Atlantic and the global ocean in recent months, it said.
Antonio Guterres: Our climate is imploding faster
The year to date (January to August) is the second warmest on record after 2016, when there was a strong warming El Niño event. The climate phenomenon is currently building up again – which has climate experts worried about the coming time.
“Our climate is imploding faster than we can handle extreme weather events that hit every corner of the planet,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said of the Copernicus data. He called on the heads of state and government to act. “We can still prevent the worst of climate chaos – and we don’t have a moment to lose.”
“The scientific evidence is overwhelming,” said Copernicus Deputy Director Burgess. “We will continue to see climate records and more intense and frequent extreme weather events impacting society and ecosystems until we stop emitting greenhouse gases.” The year 2023 is currently only 0.01 degrees behind the current record holder of 2016.
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August: hot, hotter, hottest
In August it was warmer than ever in the month, as Copernicus announced in the English city of Reading. The average surface temperature of 16.82 degrees was 0.71 degrees higher than the 1991-2000 average and an estimated 1.5 degrees higher than the pre-industrial 1850-1900 average, making August the second warmest month on record . Only in July was it even warmer at 16.95 degrees.
The results are based on computer-generated analyzes using billions of measurements from satellites, ships, airplanes and weather stations around the world. Climate researchers can reconstruct the historical climate from tree rings, air bubbles in glaciers and corals, among other things.