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.
Climate change with extremely high sea temperatures has led to by far the hottest summer since records began in 1940. The global average temperature for the months of June to August was 16.77 degrees, as the EU climate change service Copernicus announced on Wednesday. That was 0.66 degrees above average and significantly more than in the previous record year 2019 with 16.48 degrees. Climate experts are convinced that the limit has by no means been reached.
Warmest August since records began
“We will continue to see climate records and more intense and frequent extreme weather events affecting society and ecosystems until we stop emitting greenhouse gases,” said Copernicus Vice Director Samantha Burgess. She pointed out that 2023 is currently just 0.01 degrees behind the current record holder, 2016, with four months to go. The Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, Petteri Taalas, emphasized that the El Niño climate phenomenon that is currently developing will have an impact on the climate. The start of an El Niño greatly increases the likelihood that temperature records will be broken and that extreme heat will develop in many parts of the world and in the ocean. The record year 2016 was an El Niño year.
“Global temperature records will continue to tumble into 2023,” Burgess said. In August it was warmer than ever in the month, as Copernicus further announced in the English city of Reading. The average temperature of 16.82 degrees over land was 0.71 degrees higher than the average for the years 1991 to 2000 and an estimated 1.5 degrees higher than the pre-industrial era of 1850 to 1900. This made August the second warmest month on record . Only in July was it even warmer at 16.95 degrees.
Sometimes more than 40 degrees
Between water fights and forest fires: heat wave rolls over Mediterranean countries
Extreme values in the oceans
According to Copernicus, there have been record-breaking anomalies in sea surface temperature in recent months, with marine heat waves developing particularly in the North Atlantic. “Every day from July 31 to August 31, 2023, global average sea surface temperatures exceeded the previous record set in March 2016.” The result: In August, the average sea surface temperature was 20.98 degrees, the highest in a month since records began.
The oceans have been extraordinarily warm for almost half a year, and since March the surface of the oceans have had record global temperatures for every month. The ocean is a massive heat buffer, absorbing more than 90 percent of the heat caused by human-caused climate change, according to experts. The now reached extreme temperatures of the sea water have consequences. This increases the risk of extreme weather events such as heat waves and heavy rain.
In Antarctica, the amount of sea ice covered remains at historically low levels, according to Copernicus. The value of 12 percent below the long-term average means “by far the largest negative anomaly in August since satellite observations began”. The fact that the sea ice does not recover even in the Antarctic winter shocks experts. The consequences for the oceans could be serious. For example, the retreat of sea ice can lead to an increase in sea surface temperature and changes in ocean currents.
Drought and heavy rain in many regions
According to Copernicus, August was drier or wetter than usual in many regions of the world. It was very wet across much of central Europe and Scandinavia, northwest and western North America, and large regions of Asia. Heavy rain triggered flooding. Landslides were the result in parts of Chile and Brazil as well as in central Asian Tajikistan. It was drier than usual in Iceland, south-west Europe and most of south-east Europe. Forest fires raged in France, Greece, Italy and Portugal. It was also drier than average in the southern United States and northern Mexico, as well as some parts of Asia and most of South America.
“Our climate is imploding faster than we can deal with extreme weather events that hit every corner of the planet,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, urging leaders to act just ahead of the G20 summit in India. “We can still prevent the worst of climate chaos – and we don’t have a moment to lose,” he said. Copernicus Deputy Director Burgess stressed: “We will continue to see climate records and more intense and frequent extreme weather events affecting society and ecosystems until we stop emitting greenhouse gases.”
The measurement 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.
The WWF also warned that increasing heat is having an extreme impact on the health of people and the planet. Viviane Raddatz, climate chief at WWF Germany, accused the federal government that instead of curbing global warming, it was about to undermine the climate protection law, which is intended to reduce climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. Core elements would be deleted instead of keeping sector targets binding and receiving annual readjustments, said Raddatz. Planning must also be long-term and forward-looking. Experts had recently classified the current German climate protection policy as “insufficient”.