July 2023 has largely broken the record for the hottest month ever recorded on earth, with 0.33°C warmer than the month which held the title so far (July 2019), the European service Copernicus announced on Tuesday. Last month, marked by heat waves and fires around the world, also saw an air temperature 0.72 ° C warmer than the recent average (1991-2020) for the months of July alone. Over the first seven months of the year, 2023 so far ranks as the third hottest year on record.
The suspense was limited: as early as July 27, even before the end of the month, scientists had deemed it “extremely likely” that July 2023 would be the hottest month on record, all seasons combined.
The oceans also bear witness to this worrying development, with abnormally high surface temperatures since April and unprecedented levels in July. An absolute record was thus reached on July 30 with 20.96°C and for the whole month, the surface temperature was 0.51°C above the average (1991-2020).
“We just saw new records for both global air and ocean surface temperatures in July. These records have disastrous consequences for people and the planet, exposed to more frequent and intense extreme events,” said Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the European Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
The signs of global warming caused by human activities – starting with the use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) – have indeed appeared simultaneously throughout the world.
They are ubiquitous: Greece partly ravaged by flames as well as Canada, moreover the victim of terrible floods, crushing heat on southern Europe, North Africa, the southern United States and part of from China, victim shortly after of torrential rains… The scientific network World Weather Attribution (WWA) has already concluded that the recent heat waves in Europe and the United States would have been “virtually impossible” without the effect of human activity.
Copernicus also reports that the Antarctic sea ice has reached its lowest extent for a month of July since satellite observations began, at 15% below the average for that month.
This figure of 1.5°C is highly symbolic, as it is the most ambitious limit set by the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming. However, the threshold referred to in this international agreement relates to averages over many years and not to a single month. “Even if all of this is only temporary, it shows the urgency for ambitious efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, which are the main cause of these records,” concludes Samantha Burgess.
The year 2023 may not be done breaking records. “A relatively warm end of the year is expected for 2023 due to the development of the El Niño phenomenon”, reminds Copernicus. This cyclical climatic phenomenon over the Pacific is indeed synonymous with additional global warming.
