Globally, Wednesday, July 5th, 2023, was the hottest day on record. This is the highest average surface temperature since records began in 1979, tied with Tuesday, July 4th.
The American University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer portal reports that the temperature on Monday, July 3rd, was unprecedented.
“These years, these summers, if admissions are expected to continue, maybe on average some of the coolest years for the rest, for the next few decades. In other words, the climate is warming up and it’s the hottest we’ve ever had. But if we continue on this trajectory, these are the coolest years, the coolest summers we’ll have in the next couple of years”, said Sarah Kapnick, chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
This is the latest episode in a series of extreme phenomena linked to climate change. Like heat waves, droughts, and floods, it worries scientists without surprising them.
“A Phenomenon like this, with an increase in temperatures that seems, at least tentatively, to be some kind of record. It’s part of global warming and we’re starting to see Phenomenons that remind us that climate change is real. And we will see them more often in the future”, commented Sean Birkle, a climatologist at the University of Maine and creator of the Climate Reanalyzer.
Sarah Kapnick, chief science officer of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, added that the global heat was due to the Pacific’s natural El Nino warming, which is warming the planet and altering global weather patterns, in addition to human-caused climate change, which burns coal, oil, and gas.