The week of July 3-9 was the hottest on record globally, the UN meteorological organization said on Monday, after several daily temperature records were broken. “The world has just experienced the hottest week on record, according to preliminary data,” the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a statement, following an already record-breaking June due to the combination of climate change caused by human activity with the first effects of the return of the El Niño meteorological phenomenon.
“We are in uncharted territory”
Temperatures are breaking records both on land and in the oceans, “with potentially devastating effects on ecosystems and the environment”, the WMO said. “We are in uncharted territory and can expect more record breaking as the El Niño phenomenon develops and its effects will be felt well into 2024,” said Christopher Hewitt, director of climate services. of WMO.
El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon associated with warming ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. The current episode will probably continue with “at least moderate intensity”, still according to the WMO. According to Copernicus, contacted by AFP, Thursday July 6 was the hottest day, with an average temperature of 17.08°C, but with an insignificant margin for scientists of 0.02°C and 0.01° C on that of Wednesday and Friday.
This series of unprecedented temperatures began on July 3 (16.88°C), beating the previous record of 16.80°C dating from August 2016, the hottest year ever measured by Copernicus, whose data goes back until 1940, when El Niño intensity was strong.