'Worrying times for the planet' as world records hottest-ever week
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The world has recorded its hottest-ever week, signalling "worrying times for the planet" as it enters "uncharted territory", the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has said.
Preliminary data show that the past week followed the hottest ever June, with both land and sea temperatures across the world having "potentially devastating impacts on ecosystems and the environment", the global meteorological service said.
Ireland was among territories in June to record unprecedented marine heatwaves, with waters rising up to 5C warmer than usual for the year, an unenviable record that can play havoc with already precarious ocean life.
The WMO said that the last week also showed a record low Antarctic sea ice extent, which describes the total area covered by some amount of ice.
Prof Christopher Hewitt, WMO director of climate services, said: "The exceptional warmth in June and at the start of July occurred at the onset of the development of El Niño, which is expected to further fuel the heat both on land and in the oceans and lead to more extreme temperatures and marine heatwaves."
El Niño refers to the warming of the ocean surface, or above-average sea surface temperatures, in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, affecting the rest of the world when it happens. The phenomenon returned after the third winter of the La Niña water cooling phenomenon, in a highly unusual "triple dip" situation.
Opposite to the warming El Niño pattern, La Niña refers to the large-scale cooling of the ocean surface temperatures, coupled with changes in the tropical atmospheric circulation, namely winds, pressure, and rainfall.
Even with La Niña, Europe recorded its hottest-ever summer in 2022, with scientists warning the return of the warming El Niño likely to spike temperatures even further.
Prof Hewitt added: "We are in uncharted territory and we can expect more records to fall as El Niño develops further and these impacts will extend into 2024. This is worrying news for the planet."
The data show that the average global temperature on July 7 was 17.24C, some 0.3C above the previous record of 16.94C on August 16, 2016, which was considered a strong El Niño year, the WMO said.
Last month was just over 0.5C above the 1991-2020 average, smashing the previous record of June 2019, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
C3S said that as well as record temperatures across northwest Europe, there were parts of Canada, the US, Mexico, Asia, and eastern Australia that were significantly warmer than normal.
The highly unusual sea temperature spikes in the North Atlantic especially mean that "alarm bells are ringing especially loudly", the WMO warned.
Dr Michael Sparrow, head of WMO’s World Climate Research Department, said: "The temperatures in the North Atlantic are unprecedented and of great concern. They are much higher than anything the models predicted. This will have a knock-on effect on ecosystems and fisheries and on our weather.
"The North Atlantic is one of the key drivers of extreme weather. With the warming of the Atlantic, there is an increasing likelihood of more hurricanes and tropical cyclones."
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