RFI
Wed, 24 July 2024
Earth withered through a second straight day of record-breaking temperatures on 22 July, the EU's climate monitor said Wednesday, as parts of the world suffer devastating heatwaves and wildfires.
Preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) showed the daily global average temperature was 17.15 degrees Celsius on Monday, the warmest day in recorded history.
This was 0.06 Celsius hotter than the day before on 21 July, which itself broke by a small margin the all-time average high temperature set only a year before.
"This is exactly what climate science told us would happen if the world continued burning coal, oil and gas," said Joyce Kimutai, a climate scientist from Imperial College London, on Wednesday.
"And it will continue getting hotter until we stop burning fossil fuels and reach net zero emissions."
Copernicus, which uses satellite data to update global air and sea temperatures close to real time, said its figures were provisional and final values may differ very slightly.
It anticipated daily records could keep toppling as summer peaks in the northern hemisphere, and the planet endures an extraordinary stretch of unprecedented heat on the back of the hottest-ever year.
The monitor on Tuesday said global temperatures were expected to drop soon though there could be further fluctuations.
Global warming is causing longer, stronger and more frequent extreme weather events, and this year has been marked by major disasters across the globe.
(AFP)
July 22 second day in row to break global heat record: EU monitor
Nick Perry
Wed, 24 July 2024
Climate change is causing longer, stronger and more frequent extreme weather events like heatwaves and floods (CRISTINA QUICLER)
Earth withered through a second-straight day of record-breaking temperatures on July 22, the EU's climate monitor said Wednesday, as parts of the world suffer devastating heatwaves and wildfires.
Preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) showed the daily global average temperature was 17.15 degrees Celsius (62.9 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday, the warmest day in recorded history.
This was 0.06C hotter than the day before on July 21, which itself broke by a small margin the all-time high temperature set only a year before.
"This is exactly what climate science told us would happen if the world continued burning coal, oil and gas," said Joyce Kimutai, a climate scientist from Imperial College London, on Wednesday.
"And it will continue getting hotter until we stop burning fossil fuels and reach net zero emissions."
Copernicus, which uses satellite data to update global air and sea temperatures close to real time, said its figures were provisional and final values may differ very slightly.
It anticipated daily records could keep toppling as summer peaks in the northern hemisphere, and the planet endures an extraordinary stretch of unprecedented heat on the back of the hottest-ever year.
The monitor on Tuesday said global temperatures were expected to drop soon though there could be further fluctuations.
Global warming is causing longer, stronger and more frequent extreme weather events, and this year has been marked by major disasters across the globe.
The historic heat has been felt on many continents including Asia, North America and Europe, where heatwaves and wildfires have torn a path of destruction in recent weeks.
Fires have also ripped through the Arctic, which is warming much faster than elsewhere on the planet, while winter temperatures were well above normal in Antarctica.
- 'Horrific temperatures' -
Copernicus said it was less the fact daily temperature records were being rewritten than a broader pattern of never-before-seen warming that greatly worries climate scientists.
Every month since June 2023 has eclipsed its own temperature record compared to the same month in previous years, something never before seen.
The heat witnessed on Sunday and Monday only slightly exceeded the July 2023 record, but was far above the previous high of 16.8C set in August 2016.
Copernicus said that 16.8C record has been smashed 57 times since July 2023, around the time global temperatures began a steady rise into what scientists have called unchartered territory.
"The much used term 'unprecedented' no longer describes the horrific temperatures we are experiencing," Christiana Figueres, a former head of the UN's climate change body, said on Wednesday.
Copernicus records go back to 1940 but other sources of climate data such as ice cores, tree rings and coral skeletons allow scientists to expand their conclusions using evidence from much deeper in the past.
Climate scientists say the period being lived through right now is likely the warmest the earth has been for the last 100,000 years, back at the start of the last Ice Age.
The burning of fossil fuels is the primary driver of climate change and emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases keep rising despite global efforts to slow rising temperatures.
Copernicus on Tuesday said 2024 could pass 2023 as the hottest year on record but it was "too early to predict with confidence".
Record for World’s Hottest Day Gets Broken Two Days in a Row
Charna Flam
Wed, 24 July 2024
Sunday, July 21, was briefly the hottest recorded day on Earth, until Monday, July 22 rolled around
Close-up of a young man covering his head with a cloth and wearing black sunglasses on an extremely hot afternoon while drinking water from a plastic bottle.
Sunday, July 21, was briefly the hottest recorded day on Earth. Then, Monday, July 22 rolled around.
After the global average temperature reached 62.762 degrees Fahrenheit (17.09 degrees Celsius) on Sunday, per the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, temperatures reached 62.87 degrees Fahrenheit (17.15 degrees Celsius) the following day.
The two back-to-back days had the hottest temperatures in recorded history, causing heat waves worldwide the past week — and throughout the summer. Before Sunday, July 21, the hottest day on record was Aug. 12, 2016.
“The event is still ongoing and it is possible the date of the peak may still change, but our data suggest we may see slightly lower temperatures in the next few days,” Carlo Buontempo, the director of Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement.
image of a tired adult person feeling unwell during a hot day
In America, parts of California experienced triple-digit temperatures on July 22, triggering wildfire warnings in the affected areas, per NBC News. Meanwhile, temperatures reached 118 degrees in Dubai as a heatwave continues to grip Southern Europe, with Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece all issuing heat advisories.
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Northern China also experienced historic numbers this summer, with the Xinjiang region reaching above 104 degrees, per CNN.
Related: 56-Year-Old Hiker Dies After Running Out of Water Near Utah State Park amid Triple-Digit Heat
Another factor to the excessive heat? El Niño, a natural climate pattern that refers to the warming of the ocean’s surface, or “above-average sea surface temperatures, in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean,” per the United States Geological Survey.
Yale Climate Connections climate writer and meteorologist Bob Henson has predicted that La Niña — the weather pattern that brings cooler temperatures — will reduce average temperatures later this year, per NBC News.
“Even if next year doesn’t bring similar records, we know what the long term forecast is, and that’s warmer and warmer over time,” Henson said. “When you turn up the burners and leave them on for a century, you’re going to see the water boil.”
Record broken for hottest day on earth for second straight day
Lauren Sforza
Wed, 24 July 2024
Monday broke the record for the hottest day on Earth, marking the second straight day of temperatures surpassing the previous high.
Preliminary data published by the European climate service Copernicus Wednesday showed that Monday’s temp was 0.06 degrees Celsius — about 0.1 degree Fahrenheit — higher than Sunday’s temperature. This made Monday the hottest day recorded on Earth, breaking the previous record set the day before.
The global average temperature on Monday was 17.15 degrees Celsius—about 62.87 degrees Fahrenheit. This broke Sunday’s record of 17.09 degrees Celsius, which is about 62.76 degrees Fahrenheit.
Before this week, the previous record of the global average temperature was 17.08 degrees Celsius — or nearly 62.74 degrees Fahrenheit — recorded on July 6, 2023.
Copernicus Climate Change Service Director Carlo Buontempo warned that the world is in “uncharted territory” when the record was initially broken on Sunday.
“On July 21st, C3S recorded a new record for the daily global mean temperature. What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records,” he said, according to an article from Copernicus.
“We are now in truly uncharted territory and as the climate keeps warming, we are bound to see new records being broken in future months and years,” Buontempo added.
Before the 2023 record, the previous hottest day on Earth was set on Aug. 13, 2016, when the global average temperature hit 16.80 degrees Celsius — or about 62.24 degrees Fahrenheit.
Copernicus’s analysis suggested that warmer temperatures in the Antarctic region contributed to the high global average temperatures recorded this week. The analysis noted that a similar trend occurred in July 2023, when global temperatures also reached a new record.
The analysis said that it expected temperatures to peak by Tuesday before dipping down.
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'Heat is a killer': Experts explain why it matters that heat records were broken this week
Sibi Arasu / Seth Borenstein
Thu, 25 July 2024
'Heat is a killer': Experts explain why it matters that heat records were broken this week
Monday marked the hottest day ever on Earth. The second hottest day? The day before. Heat records have never tumbled at such speed before and it could have dire consequences for people everywhere, especially Europe which is the fastest warming continent on Earth.
The EU's climate service Copernicus calculated that the global average temperature on Monday was 17.16 Celsius, narrowly topping the previous record set just a day before when it was 17.09 C. Tuesday was then 17.15 C.
All of these temperatures beat the record set just last year on 6 July by 0.01°C. All of these obliterate the previous record of 16.8°C, which itself was only a few years old, set in 2016.
The Earth would not be heating up so fast if fossil fuels were not being burned at such a rate, leading to human-caused global warming.
'Heat is a killer'
“The steady drumbeat of hottest-day-ever records and near-records is concerning for three main reasons. The first is that heat is a killer.
The second is that the health impacts of heat waves become much more serious when events persist.
The third is that the hottest-day records this year are a surprise,” says Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field.
Field said high temperatures usually occur during El Niño years - a natural warming of the equatorial Pacific that triggers weather extremes across the globe - but the last El Niño ended in April.
Field said these high temperatures “underscores the seriousness of the climate crisis."
“This has been, I mean, probably the shortest-lived record ever,” Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo said Wednesday, after his agency calculated that Monday had beaten Sunday’s mark. And he predicted that mark would also quickly fall. “We are in uncharted territory.”
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Previous record has been beaten 59 times in 13 months
Before 3 July 2023, the hottest day measured by Copernicus was 16.8 C on 13 August, 2016. In the last 13 months that mark has now been beaten 59 times, according to Copernicus.
Humanity is now “operating in a world that is already much warmer than it was before,” Buontempo said.
“Unfortunately people are going to die and those deaths are preventable,” said Kristie Ebi, a public health and climate professor at the University of Washington. “Heat is called the silent killer for a reason. People often don’t know they’re in trouble with heat until it’s too late.”
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Most heat deaths in more than 80 years
In past heatwaves, including in 2021 in the Pacific Northwest, heat deaths didn’t start piling up until day two, Ebi said.
“At some point, the accumulated heat internally becomes too much, then your cells and your organs start to warm up,” Ebi said.
Last year, the United States had its most recorded heat deaths in more than 80 years, according to an Associated Press analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. The death certificates of more than 2,300 people mentioned excessive heat.
Earlier this year, India witnessed prolonged heatwaves that resulted in the death of at least a 100 people. However, health experts say heat deaths are likely undercounted in India and potentially other countries.
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The “big driver” of the current heat is greenhouse gas emissions, from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, Buontempo said. Those gases help trap heat, changing the energy balance between the heat coming in from the sun and that escaping Earth, meaning the planet retains more heat energy than before, he said.
Other factors include the warming of the Pacific by El Nino; the sun reaching its peak cycle of activity; an undersea volcano explosion; and air with fewer heat-reflecting particles because of marine fuel pollution regulations, experts said.
The last 13 months have all set heat records. The world’s oceans broke heat records for 15 months in a row and that water heat, along with an unusually warm Antarctica, are helping push temperatures to record level, Buontempo said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see Thursday, Friday and Saturday also set new warmest day records,” said climate scientist Andrew Weaver at the University of Victoria in Canada, which has been broiling in the warmth.
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