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WASHINGTON (AP) — For the ninth month in a row, Earth has shattered global heat records — with February completely freezing and the world’s oceans setting new high temperature marks, according to the European Union’s climate agency Copernicus. Have done.
It has the latest record-breaking driven by climate change The global hot streak includes sea surface temperatures that were not only the warmest for February, but also exceeded any month on record, surpassing the mark of August 2023 and still rising at the end of the month . Copernicus reported on Wednesday that February, like the previous two winter months, far exceeded internationally set limits for long-term warming.
The previous month that did not set the record for the hottest month was May in 2023 and was a close third behind 2020 and 2016. Copernicus records have fallen regularly since on June,
The average temperature in February 2024 was 13.54 °C (56.37 °F), breaking the old record set in 2016 by almost an eighth of a degree. February was 1.77 °C (3.19 °F) warmer than in the late 19th century, according to Copernicus’s calculations. Only last December was the month more above pre-industrial levels than February.
In the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world set a goal of trying to keep warming at or below 1.5 °C (2.7 °F). Copernicus’ data are monthly and do not have an exactly uniform measurement system for the Paris range, which is averaged over two or three decades. But Copernicus data shows temperatures have increased by more than 1.5 degrees in the eight months through July 2023.
Climate scientists say most of the record warming is from human-caused climate change due to carbon dioxide and methane emissions from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. excess heat comes from a natural el ninoWarming of the central Pacific that alters global weather patterns.
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“It is not surprising to see global temperatures above normal, given a strong El Niño through mid-2023, as El Niño pumps heat from the ocean into the atmosphere, increasing air temperatures. But the amount by which records have been broken is worrying,” said climate scientist Jennifer Francis of the Woodwell Climate Research Center, who was not part of the calculations.
“And we’re also seeing ongoing ‘hot spots’ over the Arctic, where the rate of warming is much faster than the rest of the world, causing a variety of impacts. Fisheriesecosystem, Ice Meltingand was replaced ocean current patterns That has long-term and far-reaching implications,” Francis said.
Outside the Pacific Ocean, where El Niño is centered, record high ocean temperatures indicate it is more than a natural influence, said Copernicus senior climate scientist Francesca Guglielmo.
North Atlantic sea surface temperatures have been at record lows every day for a solid year since March 5, 2023 — compared to a specific date, “often seeming impossible,” according to a University of Miami tropical scientist. Brian McNoldy,
Those other marine areas are “a symptom of heat trapped in greenhouse gas for decades,” Francis said in an email. “That heat is now emerging and pushing air temperatures into uncharted territory.”
“These unusually high temperatures are very concerning,” said Natalie Mahowald, a climate scientist at Cornell University. “To avoid higher temperatures, we need to act quickly to reduce CO2 emissions.”
It was the warmest winter ever – December, January and February – by almost a quarter degree, beating 2016, which was also an El Niño year. The three-month period in Copernicus record keeping was the longest period in any season above pre-industrial levels, which goes back to 1940.
Francis said on a scale of 1 to 10 of how bad the situation is, she describes what is happening right now as “10, but soon we will need a new scale because what is a 10 today will be a five in the future unless That society cannot stop the formation of heat-trapping gases.”
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