It was seen that summer 2023 (in the northern hemisphere) will be a period of records. And it didn’t take us long to get to the first one. In accordance with United States Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, abbreviation in English), Monday, 3 July, the highest global average temperature has been reached since records exist. Therefore, we can say that it was hottest day recent history.
These records are taken since 1979. It should be noted that these are global temperatures that include the northern and southern hemispheres. The previous record for the surface temperature of this planet was reached in 2022, namely on July 24. On this day they were measured 16.92ºС. However, this time the dangerous barrier of 17ºC was overcome, reaching 17.01ºС.
It may not seem like a big difference, but 0.1ºC in terms of global temperature is quite a lot. In addition, the most worrying thing is that being summer in the northern hemisphere the one that tends to raise the average the most, it wouldn’t be strange if higher numbers were still achieved. After all, the hottest day was measured by the just begun summer season. If we do nothing to stop climate change, we will continue to break records. But these are not exactly the records that you like to break. But rather those that are very scary.
The hottest day in decades
It is difficult to talk about global temperature, since there is a wide range of temperatures in different parts of the planet. IN GreenlandFor example, the average temperature is -10ºC. in a desert Sahara it’s 25ºC. This may not seem like much, but we must remember that this is an average temperature and that nights in the desert are much colder than during the day.
This could help us do the averaging, but it’s not as easy as there are many others. regions with very different climates. Therefore, to measure global temperature, this is done indirectly, by analyzing the radiation emitted by the Earth. It is known that there is a mathematical relationship between the temperature and the energy of this radiation, so the average global temperature is calculated.
What NOAA has now measured is the global average air temperature for one day. This, since the beginning of the recording, has been rising from 12ºCgetting closer and closer to 17ºC. But he never got over them. The previous hottest day had touched them, as had other previous records, but that invisible limit still existed. Until now.
What can we expect?
In a statement from Agence France-Presseassembled Scientific Alertremember that they are still broadcast all over the world 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year. It is a greenhouse gas that dangerously contributes global warming.
If these emissions do not stop, we will continue to rise above 17ºC. Moreover, it is very likely that we will do it this year. The limit set as dangerous in the Paris Agreement, according to which the average temperature is 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels, has also already been exceeded. This will be the number that persists over time. The data we are talking about now is daily: hottest day of the year. But it still makes you think a lot.
It is true that this still needs to be confirmed by other methods, but if this is done, it will show that we are still doing something wrong. No matter how many numbers bombard us, it seems that we are not sufficiently aware of the gravity of global warming. We must act now, and, of course, most of all, governments and large companies must act. I hope that the announcement of these figures will be useful to someone.
Source: Hiper Textual
