July likely to be warmest month on record: NASA scientist

AFP | Washington                           

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

July 2023 will probably be the world’s hottest month in “hundreds, if not thousands, of years,” top NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt said. This month has already seen daily records shattered according to tools run by the European Union and the University of Maine, which combine ground and satellite data into models to generate preliminary estimates.

Though they differ slightly from one another, the trend of extreme heat is unmistakable and will likely be reflected in the more robust monthly reports issued later by US agencies, said Schmidt in a NASA briefing with reporters.

“We are seeing unprecedented changes all over the world -- the heat waves that we’re seeing in the US in Europe and in China are demolishing records, left, right and center,” he added. What’s more, the effects cannot be attributed solely to the El Nino weather pattern, which “has really only just emerged.”

Though El Nino is playing a small role, “what we’re seeing is the overall warmth, pretty much everywhere, particularly in the oceans. We’ve been seeing record-breaking sea surface temperatures, even outside of the tropics, for many months now.

“And we will anticipate that is going to continue, and the reason why we think that’s going to continue, is because we continue to put greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.”