July 2023 was the hottest month on record

July 2023 was the hottest on record, NASA confirmed this Monday, anticipating that this year could also be the hottest and that temperatures will continue to rise in 2024.

According to US space agency calculations, July 2023 was 0.24°C warmer than any other month for which temperature records exist and 1.18°C warmer than the average July between 1951 and 1980 ., and these have been the five warmest Julys since 1880, all within the last five years.

Late last month, the European Earth Observation Service Copernicus suggested that July 2023 could be its hottest ever since records are available, noting that high temperatures are linked to heatwaves in North America, Asia and Europe.

“What we are experiencing is anomalous and goes beyond the expected trend. (…) We expect 2023 to be exceptionally hot, but 2024 will be even hotter,” the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Research said at a press conference on Monday.

The effects of the El Niño weather event partially explain the increase recorded this year, Gavin Schmidt said, but the full potential impacts are yet to be felt as “a larger event is expected later in the year.”

Also, according to Sarah Kapnick, head of the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), there is a 50 percent chance that 2023 will be the year with the highest recorded temperatures.

“The strongest El Niño impact will occur in 2024,” added Gavin Schmidt.

Of particular concern to scientists is the temperature of the ocean surface, which, according to NOAA, has reached record levels for the fourth month in a row.

“More than 40% of the oceans experience sea heat,” Sarah Kapnick said, warning of potentially catastrophic effects on marine species, especially corals.

“Mother Nature is sending us a message: we better act now before it’s too late to save the climate and the planet,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson added.

Citing the EFE agency, Carlos Del Castillo, head of the marine ecology laboratory at the Goddard Institute, also explained that warming ocean temperatures “force more water into the atmosphere,” which could contribute to “storms” in winter. The snow is much stronger.”

The effects of global warming are also expressed in “heat waves and more intense rainfall” and contribute to “an increase in wildfires in areas affected by high temperatures,” experts explain.

“The trajectory of storms is moving north with climate change. Hawaii as a whole gets less rainfall, decade after decade, and the long-term effects are starting to show,” said Gavin Schmidt, by the way. fires that devastated the island of Maui, Hawaii.

He added that the climate crisis is “sort of a wildfire threat multiplier” and “there is a general trend that we will see more and more towards larger and more intense wildfires.”