Global Atmosphere, Ocean Temperatures Break Records in June

The global averageatmospheric temperature on Tuesday, July 4, was 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the previous record of 62.6 degrees on July 3, according to data that is collected daily by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and compiled by the University of Maine.

In a separate assessment released Thursday, the Copernicus Climate Change Service, a division of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, found that June 2023 was the hottest June registered.

Climate scientists at theCopernicus weather service, a scientific agency funded by the European Union, say the record temperatures are the result of industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that have accumulated in the atmosphere over decades and a powerful El Niño weather pattern—a natural phenomenon—that has developed in the Pacific Ocean.

“This is what we expect to happen with global warming progressing and having an El Niño on top of that,” said Robert Rohde, lead scientist at Berkeley Earth, an independent climate data organization, not involved in either report. “Now we’re hitting the highest temperatures we’ve ever seen.”

The heat has reached all corners of the planet, from record temperatures in Northern Europe to record-low sea ice cover in waters around Antarctica, say scientists from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, who based their findings ontemperature data collected from satellites, weather stations and oceangoing instruments.

Last month, the global atmospheric temperature was .95 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1991-2020 average, beating the previous record in June 2019. Europe experienced an even higher temperature anomaly, reaching 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit above average, according to the service. June 2023 was the hottest June on record, thereport said.

The Copernicus report noted record temperatures were felt across northwest Europe, parts of Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Asia and eastern Australia. Cooler-than-normal temperatures presided in June over western Australia, the western U.S. and western Russia.

Texans felt the heat more than most, as hundreds of people got sick and more than a dozen died from heat-related causes. Floods, hail and tornadoes compounded the misery and caused power outages for hundreds of thousands of customers.

In the United Kingdom, last month was officially the hottest June since 1884 and experts said conditions were made worse by a marine heat wave that surrounded the British Isles.

“Provisional findings from the Met Office suggest this marine heat wave in turn amplified land temperatures even further to the record levels seen during the month,” said Ségolène Berthou, scientific manager of the Met Office, which is the UK’s lead weather agency.

June 2023 was also the hottest June for global ocean temperatures since record-keeping began in the 1970s, and followed a similar monthly record set in May 2023, according to the Copernicus report.

Ocean scientists are concerned that rising ocean heat is affecting marine life over the long term by changing migratory patterns of fish and marine mammals, increasing ocean acidity levels, and damaging coral reefs, mangroves and wetlands that protect coastal communities from storms and sea-level rise.

“This is an extremely rare event that we’re living through right now, in terms of global temperatures in the ocean,” said Benjamin Kirtman, director of the Cooperative Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Studies at the University of Miami. “There are a number of different factors that may be contributing to that, but we don’t know for sure exactly what’s going on.”

Kirtman, Rohde and other scientists who study the interplay between the ocean and the atmosphere say factors beyond climate change and the Pacific El Niño are also influencing ocean temperatures, but they haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact cause of the record heat.

In normal years, trade winds blow dust particles from the Sahara westward across the NorthAtlantic Ocean, particles that block sunlight and help to keep that part of the ocean cool. That isn’t happeningas frequently this year, according to NOAA scientists.

And three years ago, new rules took effect that cut the amount of sulfur allowed in fuels used by ships. Those rules helped cut atmospheric sulfur pollution by 85 % in transoceanic shipping lanes, according to an analysis by Rohde. Fewer sulfur particles across shipping routes has led to more sunlight reaching the ocean’s surface, which has had a small warming effect in those areas, but wasn’t significant across the entire ocean, he said.

Rohde says that sea and atmospheric temperatures aren’t expected to cool anytime soon.

“I think we are set up for a record-warm July,” Rohde said.

The global averageatmospheric temperature on Tuesday, July 4, was 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the previous record of 62.6 degrees on July 3, according to data that is collected daily by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and compiled by the University of Maine.

In a separate assessment released Thursday, the Copernicus Climate Change Service, a division of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, found that June 2023 was the hottest June registered.

Climate scientists at theCopernicus weather service, a scientific agency funded by the European Union, say the record temperatures are the result of industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that have accumulated in the atmosphere over decades and a powerful El Niño weather pattern—a natural phenomenon—that has developed in the Pacific Ocean.

“This is what we expect to happen with global warming progressing and having an El Niño on top of that,” said Robert Rohde, lead scientist at Berkeley Earth, an independent climate data organization, not involved in either report. “Now we’re hitting the highest temperatures we’ve ever seen.”

The heat has reached all corners of the planet, from record temperatures in Northern Europe to record-low sea ice cover in waters around Antarctica, say scientists from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, who based their findings ontemperature data collected from satellites, weather stations and oceangoing instruments.

Last month, the global atmospheric temperature was .95 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1991-2020 average, beating the previous record in June 2019. Europe experienced an even higher temperature anomaly, reaching 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit above average, according to the service. June 2023 was the hottest June on record, thereport said.

The Copernicus report noted record temperatures were felt across northwest Europe, parts of Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Asia and eastern Australia. Cooler-than-normal temperatures presided in June over western Australia, the western U.S. and western Russia.

Texans felt the heat more than most, as hundreds of people got sick and more than a dozen died from heat-related causes. Floods, hail and tornadoes compounded the misery and caused power outages for hundreds of thousands of customers.

In the United Kingdom, last month was officially the hottest June since 1884 and experts said conditions were made worse by a marine heat wave that surrounded the British Isles.

“Provisional findings from the Met Office suggest this marine heat wave in turn amplified land temperatures even further to the record levels seen during the month,” said Ségolène Berthou, scientific manager of the Met Office, which is the UK’s lead weather agency.

June 2023 was also the hottest June for global ocean temperatures since record-keeping began in the 1970s, and followed a similar monthly record set in May 2023, according to the Copernicus report.

Ocean scientists are concerned that rising ocean heat is affecting marine life over the long term by changing migratory patterns of fish and marine mammals, increasing ocean acidity levels, and damaging coral reefs, mangroves and wetlands that protect coastal communities from storms and sea-level rise.

“This is an extremely rare event that we’re living through right now, in terms of global temperatures in the ocean,” said Benjamin Kirtman, director of the Cooperative Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Studies at the University of Miami. “There are a number of different factors that may be contributing to that, but we don’t know for sure exactly what’s going on.”

Kirtman, Rohde and other scientists who study the interplay between the ocean and the atmosphere say factors beyond climate change and the Pacific El Niño are also influencing ocean temperatures, but they haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact cause of the record heat.

In normal years, trade winds blow dust particles from the Sahara westward across the NorthAtlantic Ocean, particles that block sunlight and help to keep that part of the ocean cool. That isn’t happeningas frequently this year, according to NOAA scientists.

And three years ago, new rules took effect that cut the amount of sulfur allowed in fuels used by ships. Those rules helped cut atmospheric sulfur pollution by 85 % in transoceanic shipping lanes, according to an analysis by Rohde. Fewer sulfur particles across shipping routes has led to more sunlight reaching the ocean’s surface, which has had a small warming effect in those areas, but wasn’t significant across the entire ocean, he said.

Rohde says that sea and atmospheric temperatures aren’t expected to cool anytime soon.

“I think we are set up for a record-warm July,” Rohde said.