It is a naturally occurring climate pattern associated with warming of the ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. The natural El Niño climate pattern also plays a major role in the warmth: “The onset of El Niño will greatly increase the likelihood of breaking temperature records and triggering more extreme heat in many parts of the world and in the ocean,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement.Įl Niño occurs on average every two to seven years, and episodes typically last nine to 12 months. Hot water: The oceans are unusually hot and on track to get hotter. Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field, who was not part of the calculations, noted that “a record like this is another piece of evidence for the now massively supported proposition that global warming is pushing us into a hotter future." “But it is dangerous for us humans and for the ecosystems we depend on. Indeed, climate change remains a primary factor in the globe's warming: “The increasing heating of our planet caused by fossil fuel use is not unexpected − it was predicted already in the 19th century after all,” said climate scientist Stefan Rahmstorf at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research in Germany. But it is an indication that climate change is reaching into uncharted territory. The global record is not quite the type regularly used by gold-standard climate measurement entities like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. Global warming is leading us into an unfamiliar world." Rohde said that although the data set begins only in 1979, "other data sets let us look further back and conclude that this day was warmer than any point since instrumental measurements began, and probably for a long time before that as well. "We may well see a few even warmer days over the next six weeks," Berkeley Earth's Robert Rohde wrote on Tuesday on Twitter. The global daily heat record probably will be broken again throughout the summer. These gases have caused Earth's temperature to rise over the past century to levels that cannot be explained by natural variability. The warming trend can be linked to the burning of oil, gas and coal that releases "greenhouse" gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, into the atmosphere. Warmest in 125,000 years?īased on "proxy" climate data such as ice cores, tree rings and sediments, "it hasn’t been this warm since at least 125,000 years ago, which was the previous interglacial,” Paulo Ceppi, a climate scientist at London’s Grantham Institute, told The Washington Post, referring to a period of unusual warmth between two ice ages. In general, the unusual warmth is the result of a combination of human-caused climate change, the strengthening El Niño and the start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. The current data includes sweltering locations around the globe - like Jingxing, China, which recorded almost 110 degrees Fahrenheit - and other places that are unusually warm, like Antarctica, where temperatures across much of the continent were as much as 8 degrees Fahrenheit above normal this week. That's according to data from the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world’s condition. Experts believe more heat records will continue to fall this summer.Įarth's average temperature set a new unofficial record high on Thursday, when the planetary average hit 63 degrees Fahrenheit, surpassing the previous 62.9-degree mark. The records come as scientists say the planet is the hottest it has been in roughly 125,000 years. It beat a mark set Tuesday and Wednesday, which - in turn - had broken the record set Monday. Thursday was Earth's hottest day on record, based on a preliminary and unofficial data source, scientists said.
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