Record highs at sea and on land, and a ‘shocking’ decline in Antarctic ice

Report highs at sea and on land

As queries from journalists poured in at the moment (July 10, 2023), the World Meteorological Group (WMO) held a televised press conference to reply journalists’ questions and to substantiate a sequence of bulletins about file highs temps on land and at sea, in addition to a file decline in Antarctic sea ice. Omar Baddour, Chief of Local weather Monitoring at WMO, and Michael Sparrow, Chief World Local weather Analysis Program with a specialization in Antarctica, led the press occasion.

These scientists stated that the primary week of July 2023 was the warmest week but recorded. They stated international sea floor temperatures had been at a file excessive in Might and June 2023. They spelled out the quantity of decline in Antarctic sea ice. And so they stated these developments had been:

… of nice concern to the scientific group and certainly to all people.

The televised occasion adopted an announcement on Twitter by the WMO earlier at the moment of the file temps, which have been measured in current weeks:

El Niño has simply began

We started to listen to in late April that giant swaths of the world’s oceans had been already unusually heat, and that the warmth this yr was prone to break records, as a result of impending onset of El Niño. As Moninya Roughan of the College of New South Wales wrote on The Dialog in April 2023:

Local weather change is the large image. 9-tenths of all warmth trapped by greenhouse gases goes into the oceans. However there’s a right away trigger too: the uncommon triple-dip La Niña is over.

Throughout La Niña, cooler water from deep within the ocean upwells to the floor. It’s just like the Pacific Ocean’s air conditioner is operating. However now the air conditioner is turned off.

The World Meteorological Group formally introduced the onset of El Niño simply final week.

‘We’re in uncharted territory’

El Niño is characterised by a warming of the Pacific Ocean. The WMO stated that – mixed with human-induced local weather warming – the climate sample is predicted to hike up international temperatures.

The WMO officers advised journalists in Geneva at the moment that impacts will be anticipated to increase into 2024 and past:

… We’re in uncharted territory, and we will anticipate extra information to fall as El Niño develops additional.

Michael Sparrow stated:

Throughout an El Niño yr, you get greater temperatures within the environment as nicely as a result of warmth is shifting from the oceans to the environment.

We are literally originally of that course of, so El Niño hasn’t had as a lot of an impact as it’ll later within the yr. So, we’re seeing these excessive temperatures within the North Atlantic…even supposing El Niño hasn’t actually obtained going but.

Omar Baddour added {that a} file yr in 2024 is probably going, if the power of El Niño continues to develop consistent with forecasts. And he stated that each day June temperatures within the North Atlantic had been “dramatically excessive” in comparison with standard readings

‘Stunning’ decline in Antarctic sea ice

In the meantime Antarctic sea ice ranges reached their lowest extent for June since satellite observations started. They’re a “surprising” 17 per cent under common. An article at UN Information reported:

… this yr’s readings broke the June 2022 file by a considerable margin and represented ‘a very dramatic drop within the sea ice extent within the Antarctica’ – some 2.6 million sq. kilometers of misplaced sea ice.

Michael Sparrow commented that seeing this type of discount in sea ice across the Antarctic:

… Actually is totally unprecedented.

The Antarctic area is generally considered being comparatively steady; it’s a lot colder than the Arctic. We’re used to seeing these huge reductions within the sea ice within the Arctic, however not within the Antarctic.

Influence on fisheries

Past Antarctica, the WMO warned that the excessive sea floor temps would additionally affect fisheries distribution and ocean ecosystems, in addition to inland:

It isn’t solely the floor temperature of the water, however the entire ocean is changing into hotter and absorbing vitality that can stay there for tons of of years …

‘When you could have a tropical cyclone, every little thing is affected within the shores, together with fisheries, but in addition together with inland,” stated Mr. Baddour. “With heavy precipitation that might result in casualties, displacement of populations, and so forth. So, if we are saying that it’s a dramatic change, that additionally means a dramatic probability of maximum climate and local weather occasions.’

Backside line: The World Meteorological Group held a press convention on July 10, 2023, to substantiate file highs at sea and on land, in addition to a precipitous decline in Antarctic sea ice.

Via UN News

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