UN says temperatures almost half a level above common final month, as EU monitor information record-low Antarctic sea ice.
Final month marked one of many three hottest Julys ever recorded, with international temperatures measuring almost half a level Celsius (0.9F) above common, the United Nations’ climate company has stated.
“The world simply had one of many three warmest Julys on file,” Clare Nullis, spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Group (WMO), instructed reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.
Pointing to contemporary information from the European Union’s Copernicus Local weather Change Service (C3S), she stated that July 2022 had been barely cooler than the identical month in 2019 and barely hotter than the one in 2016.
“The distinction between the three months is simply too near name, in order that’s why we’re saying one of many three warmest,” Nullis defined.
Temperatures globally final month had been 0.4 levels Celsius (0.72F) above the 1991-2020 common, the WMO stated.
And this even though the climate phenomenon La Nina, which has held the globe in its clutches virtually uninterrupted since September 2020, “is supposed to have a cooling affect”.
Notably, the European summer time has seen excessive heatwaves and drought, with low precipitation information damaged in some international locations, the WMO stated.
July 2022 was the most well liked month ever recorded in Spain, Nullis stated.
In a month that noticed temperature information damaged throughout components of northern Europe and the UK, C3S stated July was drier than common for a lot of the continent, noting a variety of low-precipitation information in a number of areas.
“These situations affected the economic system domestically and facilitated the unfold and intensification of wildfires,” it stated.
C3S stated July was additionally abnormally dry throughout a lot of North America, South America, Central Asia and Australia.
Local weather change makes excessive warmth and drought extra more likely to happen.
“We are able to count on to proceed seeing extra frequent and longer intervals of extraordinarily excessive temperatures, as international temperatures enhance additional,” stated senior C3S scientist Freja Vamborg.
The service stated final month was, nonetheless, wetter than standard in japanese Russia, northern China and in a big moist band spanning from japanese Africa throughout Asia to northwest India.
Regardless of the stifling warmth in Europe and elsewhere, July didn’t clearly break a worldwide warmth file final month, since different areas, together with alongside the western Indian Ocean and far of central Asia and Australia, noticed below-average temperatures, the company stated.
Lowest July Antarctic sea ice
In the meantime, C3S recorded the bottom extent of Antarctic sea ice on file for July.
The monitoring service discovered Antarctic sea ice extent reached 15.3 million sq. kilometres (5.9 million sq. miles) – some 1.1 million sq km, or 7 p.c, under the 1991-2020 common for July.
This was the bottom ice cowl for July since satellite tv for pc information started 44 years in the past, and adopted record-low Antarctic sea ice ranges for June, too.
The service stated in its month-to-month bulletin the Southern Ocean noticed “widespread areas of below-average sea ice focus” final month.
Arctic sea ice cowl, in the meantime, was 4 p.c decrease than common, making it the twelfth lowest July sea ice extent on file.