This summer time was formally the most popular on RECORD: World temperatures have been 0.66°C above common – as specialists warn ‘local weather breakdown has begun’

Regardless of a patchy few months of climate in Britain, summer time 2023 has been the most popular on document globally, in accordance with the EU’s Copernicus climate service. 

Air temperatures this summer time have been 1.18°F (0.66°C) above common, hitting a world common of 62.18°F (16.77°C) – the best since data started in 1940. 

Copernicus additionally introduced that final month was the warmest August on document globally, and hotter than all different months except July 2023. 

This summer time has seen excessive climate occasions resembling heatwaves in Europe, North America and Asia and wildfires in Canada and Greece.

Consultants level to greenhouse gasoline emissions as the reason for hotter temperatures each within the environment and the oceans – and urge leaders to curb fossil gas emissions.

Air temperatures this summer time have been 1.18°F (0.66°C) above common, hitting a world common of 62.18°F (16.77°C) – the best since data started in 1940.  Graph ranks Earth’s hottest summers on document (the highest 5 on the far proper are 2023, 2019, 2016, 2022 and 2020)

Earth sweltered by the most popular summer time ever as document warmth in August capped a brutal, lethal three months in northern hemisphere. Pictured, folks soar into the ocean in Istanbul to maintain cool, August 22, 2023

The Copernicus local weather change service (C3S) temperature readings are primarily based on quite a lot of platforms and devices, from climate stations to climate balloons and satellites. 

They usually seek advice from the worldwide common temperature for the month – so decrease than a single sometimes ‘sizzling’ temperature studying. 

‘What we’re observing, not solely new extremes however the persistence of those record-breaking situations, and the impacts these have on each folks and planet, are a transparent consequence of the warming of the local weather system,’ C3S director Carlo Buontempo mentioned.

In a grave warning, United Nations Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres mentioned ‘local weather breakdown has begun’. 

‘The canine days of summer time should not simply barking, they’re biting,’ he mentioned in a press release. 

In accordance with the brand new CS3 information, the summer time interval – outlined by because the months of June, July and August – was the warmest on document globally this yr by a ‘giant margin’.

The second-hottest summer time globally was in 2019, however the common temperature studying for the interval was 61.66°F (16.48°C) – considerably lower than this summer time 62.18°F (16.77°C). 

Excluding one yr (1998), the ten hottest summers on document globally have been within the final decade. 

France needed to subject a ‘crimson alert’ for 4 southern areas on August 21 amid a spell of excessively sizzling climate, particularly within the Rhone valley, France. Pictured, Lyon after dawn

A person sunbathes in excessive temperatures in Marseille, southern France, August 19, 2023. UN climate company says Earth sweltered by the most popular summer time ever as document warmth in August capped a brutal, lethal three months in northern hemisphere

August 2023 was the warmest August on document globally, with a median international temperature of 62.27°F (16.82°C). This determine is 0.71°C hotter than the 1991-2020 common for August, and 0.31°C hotter than the earlier warmest August in 2016. This graph reveals globally averaged floor air temperature anomalies relative to 1991-2020 for every August from 1940 to 2023

Trying solely at Europe, the typical temperature for summer time 2023 was 67.33°F (19.63°C), which was the fifth warmest for the summer time season and 1.49°F (0.83°C) above the typical. 

CS3 has additionally revealed that August 2023 was the warmest August on document globally with a median international temperature of 62.27°F (16.82°C). 

This determine is 1.27°F (0.71°C) hotter than the 1991-2020 common for August, and 0.55°F (0.31°C) hotter than the earlier warmest August in 2016. 

What’s extra, August 2023 was hotter than every other month on document aside from the month that preceded it. 

July 2023 was just lately confirmed by CS3 as the hottest month ever, with a world common temperature of 62.51°F (16.95°C). 

CS3’s fundamental metric for measuring how sizzling it’s, is the temperature of the air, however it additionally retains monitor of temperatures of the world’s oceans. 

Particularly it appears at sea floor temperature – how sizzling the water is near the ocean’s floor. 

Sadly, it additionally registered new data right here for summer time 2023 as nicely, with ‘record-breaking’ sea floor temperature anomalies. 

August had the best international month-to-month common sea floor temperature on document, at 69.76°F (20.98°C), which was nicely above common for August.

Within the North Atlantic particularly, the ocean floor temperature hit a brand new document of 77.34°F (25.19°C) on August 31, breaking the earlier each day document of 76.65F (24.81°C), set in September 2022. 

Each day international sea floor temperature (°C) averaged for every year from 1 January 1979 to 31 August 2023. The years 2023 and 2016 are proven with thick strains shaded in vivid crimson and darkish crimson, respectively. Different years are proven with skinny strains and shaded in accordance with the last decade, from blue (Nineteen Seventies/80s) to brick crimson (2020s)

A person cools off at a brief misting station deployed by the town within the Downtown Eastside on account of a warmth wave, in Vancouver, British Columbia, August 16, 2023

CS3 already introduced common sea temperatures hit 69.72°F (20.96°C) on July 31, beating a document of 69.71°F (20.95°C) set in March 2016. 

Common sea temperatures have been climbing steadily for the reason that Nineteen Seventies on account of greenhouse gases trapping extra warmth and making the water really feel ‘like a shower’, in accordance with one knowledgeable. 

Scientists blame ever warming human-caused local weather change from the burning of fossil fuels – particularly coal, oil and pure gasoline – for the brand new CS3 information. 

Dr Friederike Otto, a lecturer in local weather science at Imperial School London, mentioned: ‘Breaking warmth data has turn out to be the norm in 2023. 

‘World warming continues as a result of we’ve got not stopped burning fossil fuels. It’s that straightforward.

‘So long as we burn fossil fuels, these occasions will turn out to be an increasing number of intense, offering ever better obstacles to adaptation.’

Professor Mark Maslin, professor of climatology at College School London, added: ‘2023 is the yr that local weather data weren’t simply damaged however smashed.

‘With document heat-waves in Europe, America and China, document ocean temperature and excessive melting of Antarctic sea ice we are actually feeling the complete impacts of local weather change. 

‘Excessive climate occasions are actually frequent and getting worse yearly – this can be a get up name to worldwide leaders that we should quickly scale back carbon emissions now.’

Israelis and Palestinians bathe in a cool pure spring within the Judean Desert, West Financial institution on August 1 this yr

A person makes use of a small fan to chill off from the extreme warmth at Passeio Marítimo in Algés, simply outdoors Lisbon, Portugal, August 6, 2023

Brits, in the meantime, have been battered by chilly air and downpours for a lot of 2023’s summer time season. Pictured, holidaymakers on the seaside in Weymouth, Dorset on July 31, 2023

Brits might discover the brand new warmth data onerous to imagine because the nation has been hit by chilly air and rain by a lot of the summer time, regardless of heatwaves round mainland Europe (although the last few days have seen a late burst of summer heat). 

This July was the sixth wettest British July on record, Met Workplace figures just lately revealed, regardless of June being the hottest British June on record. 

July 2023 contrasted with July final yr, which noticed the UK’s first crimson excessive warmth warning to be issued within the nation, indicating ‘a threat to life’. 

In 2022, UK temperatures broke the 104°F (40°C) mark for the primary time, hitting a new record of 104.5°F (40.3°C) on July 19 at Coningsby in Lincolnshire. 

Local weather specialists are actually urging the general public to keep in mind that international temperatures are rising, even when native temperatures do not at all times appear to be.