July 3 Was World’s Hottest Day, This June Warmest Ever in South Peninsular India Since 1901
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: Monday, July 3, was the world’s hottest day ever recorded, as per climate data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction. Several regions across the world witnessed heat waves, with the average global temperature touching 17.01°C.
Meanwhile, back home, the June that passed was the hottest that south peninsular India has ever witnessed. The average maximum temperature rose to 34.05°C. The warmest June so far was in 2014, at 33.74°C.
On July 4, the World Meteorological Organisation confirmed that El Niño conditions have developed in the tropical Pacific. This could mean further global temperature rises.
World’s hottest day
July 3 was the hottest day that the world has ever seen, as per climate data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction, which parses global climate, water and other data to provide a range of services including weather predictions. The average global temperature touched 17.01°C on the day. It broke the earlier record of 16.92°C in August 2016.
This is a sign of human-induced climate change, several experts said.
“Loss and damage from human-induced climate change have arrived throughout the world with the hottest day ever,” said Saleemul Huq, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Independent University, Bangladesh, in a press release. “Expect many more hottest days in future."
The July 3 event is a “stark reminder of the rapid pace of climate change”, Zeke Hausfather, climate research lead at global technology company Stripe and research scientist at Berkeley Earth, an independent US non-profit organisation focused on environmental data science and analysis.
“Unfortunately it promises to be only the first in a series of new records set this year, as increasing emissions of CO2 and greenhouse gases coupled with a growing El Niño event push temperatures to new highs,” he said in the release.
June was the warmest ever, and by a huge margin, he added.
“June 2023 has blown away all prior records for the month of June, coming in at a staggering 0.16°C above the prior record set in 2019. It was around 1.46°C above the typical temperatures we saw in June in the preindustrial era (1850-1899),” he tweeted.
Similarly, July is on track to be the warmest on record too; and the first six months of 2023 suggest that it looks “increasingly likely” that 2023 will be the overall warmest year ever, he warned in the press release.
A new record for the hottest day was “a death sentence for people and ecosystems,” said Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in Climate Science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, in the press release. She too warned that with a developing El Niño year, the world will likely break this record again in the coming months; we have to stop burning fossil fuels, she added.
El Niño conditions develop
And the El Niño is here.
On July 4, the World Meteorological Organisation said in a press release that El Niño conditions have developed in the tropical Pacific for the first time in seven years, “setting the stage for a likely surge in global temperatures and disruptive weather and climate patterns”. The WMO had already warned the world in May this year to brace for an upcoming El Niño year, as The Wire reported.
El Niños are part of a complex climate pattern caused by atmospheric changes and fluctuating sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Though a naturally-occurring event that is often associated with weak monsoons and reduced rainfall in many regions, human-induced climate change can further aggravate its impacts.
The WMO’s latest update predicts a 90% probability of the El Niño event, of “at least moderate strength” continuing during the second half of 2023.
“The declaration of an El Niño by WMO is the signal to governments around the world to mobilize preparations to limit the impacts on our health, our ecosystems and our economies,” said WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas. “Early warnings and anticipatory action of extreme weather events associated with this major climate phenomenon are vital to saving lives and livelihoods.”
Representative image of a wildfire. Photo: Twitter/@LicypriyaK
Warmest June for south peninsular India
It’s been a fairly warm month at home too.
The June that passed was the hottest that south peninsular India has ever witnessed, based on data collected since 1901, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in a press release on July 4.
“Over South Peninsular India during June, the average maximum temperature is ever highest at 34.05°C since 1901 and it has broken the earlier ever-highest record of 33.74°C that was in 2014 for the month of June for the same period,” it read.
Per the IMD, the maximum temperature was above normal by 4.4°C over most parts of not only south peninsular India but also east and northeast India, and some parts of northwest and central India.
Similarly, the mean temperature over south peninsular India was also the highest ever during June so far, at 30.05°C since 1901. The earlier record was 29.98°C in 2014, between 1901 and 2023, the IMD noted.
No surprise then that June witnessed several heat wave days.
Some parts of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, east Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, coastal Andhra Pradesh and Telangana experienced between 11 to 19 heat wave days (deviating from the normal range of 2-4 days) during the month. Parts of central India – including East Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha – witnessed between seven to nine heat wave days in June.
This article went live on July fifth, two thousand twenty three, at twenty minutes past four in the afternoon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.