World bracing for unprecedented heat and record low sea ice extent: WMO

New Delhi: The first week of July became the warmest week ever recorded with a global average temperature close to 17.24 degrees Celsius on 7 July, experts at the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday.

It follows the hottest June on record, with unprecedented sea surface temperatures and record low Antarctic sea ice extent.

“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,” said Prof. Christopher Hewitt, WMO Director of Climate Services.

“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,” he said. “This is worrying news for the planet,” he said.

According to provisional analysis based on reanalysis data from Japan named JRA-3Q, the average global temperature on 7 July was 17.24 degrees Celsius. This is 0.3°C above the previous record of 16.94 °C on 16 August 2016 – a strong El Niño year.

“The record-breaking temperatures on land and in the ocean have potentially devastating impacts on ecosystems and the environment” said WMO in a statement.

According to various datasets from our partners in different parts of the world, the first week of July set a new record in terms of daily temperatures,” said Dr Omar Baddour, chief of climate monitoring at WMO.

“The WMO and wider scientific community are closely watching these dramatic changes in different components of the climate system, and sea surface temperatures,” he told a media briefing.

A report from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service a close collaborator with the World Meteorological Organization showed that June 2023 was just over 0.5°C above the 1991-2020 average, smashing the previous record of June 2019.

Record June temperatures were experienced across northwest Europe, according to Copernicus. Parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Asia, and eastern Australia were significantly warmer than normal.

“The temperatures in the North Atlantic are unprecedented and of great concern. They are much higher than anything the models predicted” said Dr Michael Sparrow, head of WMO’s World Climate Research Department. “This will have a knock on effect on ecosystems and fisheries and on our weather,” he said.

“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. North Atlantic sea surface temperature is associated with heavy rain or drought in West Africa,” said Dr Baddour.

Meanwhile the Antarctic sea ice reached its lowest extent for June since satellite observations began, at 17% below average, breaking the previous June record.

“Throughout the month, the daily Antarctic sea ice extent remained at unprecedented low values for the time of year” WMO said

It said, “There was about 2.6 million sqare kilometers of Antarctic sea ice loss compared to the long- term average of the satellite era and almost 1.2 million km2 compared to the previous record in 2022”.

“That is a really dramatic drop in the sea ice extent in Antarctica” said Dr Baddour. Arctic sea ice extent was slightly below average but well above the June values from the past eight years.