Last Week The Hottest In Recorded World History, U.N. Agency Says

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced on Monday that last week marked the hottest global temperatures ever recorded, and the looming El Niño phenomenon is expected to further increase the pressure on global temperatures.

The WMO stated that numerous temperature records were broken last week, including unprecedented high sea surface temperatures and record-low coverage of Antarctic sea ice.

Climate change, combined with the approaching El Niño, is anticipated to drive up both land and ocean temperatures. However, the full impact of the El Niño system has yet to be felt, suggesting that temperature records may be surpassed later in the year.

Michael Sparrow, head of the WMO’s world climate research department, expressed concern during a press call, highlighting the challenges faced by the scientific community in keeping pace with these alarming developments.

According to the WMO, mean temperatures reached as high as 17.24 degrees Celsius (63.03 degrees Fahrenheit) worldwide on Friday, as per data from the Japanese government’s JRA-3Q dataset. These findings align with observations from the European Union’s Copernicus ECMWF ERA5 and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Early indications point to the first week of July as the hottest since the inception of modern temperature measurements, following a previous month of record-breaking high temperatures that exceeded the 1991-2020 average by 0.5 degrees Celsius.

The WMO expressed great concern about the unprecedented and exceptionally warm temperatures in the North Atlantic. Given the region’s influence on extreme weather events, a warmer Atlantic could contribute to more hurricanes, tropical cyclones, as well as increased rainfall and drought in West Africa.

It is worth noting that the elevated temperatures in the North Atlantic are not solely attributable to El Niño. The oceans absorb over 90% of the heat generated by human-produced greenhouse gases, which drive climate change. However, the emergence of the El Niño system is expected to further elevate ocean temperatures, which poses worrying implications for the planet, according to Christopher Hewitt, WMO director of climate services.

{Matzav.com}