On the 3rd, the global average temperature exceeded 17 degrees, breaking the all-time high. As the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) officially declared the start of El Niño on the 4th (local time), there is a prospect that this record could be broken again.
The US National Center for Environmental Prediction announced on the 3rd that the global average temperature recorded 17.01 degrees Celsius, replacing the previous record of 16.92 degrees Celsius set in August 2016. It is the highest temperature since satellite records began in 1979.
Friederike Otto, a climatologist at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute for Climate Change and Environment, warned the British daily Guardian that “this is a death sentence for humanity and ecosystems.”
All parts of the world are already suffering from abnormal weather conditions. According to the National Weather Service, heat advisories are in effect this week for parts of northwestern Oregon, inland northern California, and central New Mexico. The heat of over 37 degrees continues in the South, including Texas.
In China, heatwaves are rampant in the north and record-breaking rains are pouring down in many parts of the south. On the 5th, the Central Meteorological Observatory of China issued a yellow warning for high temperatures in Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong and Hebei provinces스포츠토토. The highest temperature in this area was 37 to 39 degrees, with some areas exceeding 40 degrees. The average number of hot days (with a maximum temperature of 35 degrees or more) across China through June this year was 4.1, the highest since 1961. On the other hand, in Chongqing and Jiangxi Province, torrential rains flooded rivers and damaged roads and houses.
Polar regions are no exception. At Ukraine’s Vernatsky Research Station in Antarctica, a record temperature of 8.7 degrees Celsius was recently recorded, the highest temperature observed in July.
In the midst of this, the WMO officially declared that “El Niño has begun in the tropical Pacific for the first time in seven years.” El Niño is a phenomenon in which the temperature of the sea surface near the equator in the eastern Pacific Ocean is 0.5 degrees higher than normal for more than 5 months. It usually occurs every 2 to 7 years and continues for 9 to 12 months.
According to WMO , there is a 90% chance that El Niño will continue in the second half of the year. An El Niño event could result in increased rainfall in southern South America, northeastern Africa and Central Asia, and severe drought in Indonesia, parts of South Asia, and Central America. “The declaration of an El Niño event is a signal that governments must prepare for the impact on health, economy and ecosystem,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Talas
. At the same time, he said, “There is a growing possibility that temperature records will be broken in various parts of the world and extreme heat will be triggered.”