According to calculations by the US space agency, the month of July 2023 was 0.24 °C warmer than any other month for which temperature records exist and 1.18 °C warmer than the average of July between 1951 and 1980, with the five warmest Julys since 1880 all being within the last five years.
Already at the end of last month, the European Earth observation service Copernicus had anticipated that the month of July 2023 could be the hottest since there are records, noting that high temperatures are related to heat waves in North America , Asia and Europe.
“What we are experiencing is anomalous and above the expected trend. (…) We anticipate that 2023 will be exceptionally hot, but that 2024 will be an even hotter year”, said today, at a press conference, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
According to Gavin Schmidt, the consequences of the El Niño meteorological phenomenon explain, in part, the increase registered this year, but the potential effects have not yet been fully felt, with “a bigger event at the end of the year” being expected.
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