In July, most people felt the heat of climate change.
July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded, and climate change made the elevated temperatures across 51 percent of Earth’s land surface at least five times more likely, according to a study released August 2 by Climate Central.
Researchers have already identified the fingerprints of climate change in recent years Heat wavesYou can also find out more about the following: China, North America, and Europe (SN: 7/19/23; SN: 7/25/23). But the new report shows that during July, climate change’s influence extended across much of the globe, especially “a tropical band around the planet that includes Africa, South and Central America, the Malay Archipelago and many of the small island nations in both hemispheres,” Andrew Pershing, a climate scientist with the Princeton, N.J., nonprofit, said at an August 1 news briefing.
While the World Meteorological Organization has yet to officially deem July as Earth’s hottest recorded month, it has confirmed the month’s first three weeks were the Record-breaking heat for a three-week period. The highest global average temperature — 17.23° Celsius (63.01° Fahrenheit) — was recorded on July 6 (SN: 7/13/23). “It’s pretty clear that July is going to hit the record,” Pershing said.
He and his colleagues used computers to simulate the world with contemporary climate warming — 1.27 degrees C above preindustrial levels — and without it to isolate the influence of climate change on temperatures worldwide.
The researchers found that in the last month, 81 percent or more of the global population was exposed to heat. In a world affected by climate change, this is at least three-times more likely than it would be without.
The recent return of El Niño, a natural climate phenomenon that temporarily raises global average temperatures, is also “definitely having an effect,” said Pershing.
But humans are warming the climate so fast that this year’s elevated temperatures could soon return even without El Niño. “This is the hottest El Niño year we’ve ever had,” Pershing said, “and five years from now, this will be a normal year.”
