The global temperature in July 2023 is now confirmed to be the hottest since records began, and sea surface temperatures are also on record, Samantha Burgess, spokeswoman for the EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), said at a UN briefing in Geneva.
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“We have just witnessed new historical records for global air and ocean surface temperatures in July. These records have dire consequences for both people and a planet subject to increasingly frequent and intense extreme events. 2023 is now time is the third warmest year to date, 0.43 degrees Celsius above the recent average, with the average global temperature in July 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels,” she said.
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According to the organization, July 2023 was 0.72 degrees warmer than the average July of 1991-2020 and 0.33 degrees hotter than the record warmest month in 2019. C3S estimates that July 2023 was about 1.5 degrees warmer than the 1850-1900 average.
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“Global average sea surface temperatures continued to rise after a long period of unusually high temperatures since April 2023, hitting record highs in July. For the entire month, average global sea surface temperatures were 0.51 degrees warmer than the 1991-2020 average Temperatures in the North Atlantic were 1.05 degrees above average in July as temperatures remained above average in the northeast ocean and unusually high temperatures in the northwest,” Burgess added.
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She stressed that Antarctic sea ice extent continues to break new records for this time of year, with monthly readings 15% below average, the lowest in July since satellite observations began to date.
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Earlier, the UN World Meteorological Organization published a forecast according to which global temperatures could reach record high levels over the next five years. This will be facilitated by the anthropogenic factor, that is, greenhouse gases, and the natural factor – the change in the phases of ocean currents from La Niña to El Niño.
