Earth records the hottest summer ever in history in 2023: NASA

The sum of June, July, and August’s temperatures was 1.2 C warmer than the typical summer between 1951 and 1980 and 0.23 C warmer than any other summer in NASA’s data.

In addition to escalating fatal wildfires in Canada and Hawaii, this record-breaking heatwave also caused violent heatwaves in South America, Japan, Europe, and the US. It also probably caused heavy rainfall in Italy, Greece, and Central Europe.

NASA and the Biden-Harris Administration to combating the effects of climate change.

Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA, stressed the practical consequences of these record-breaking temperatures, saying that extreme weather is endangering lives and way of life all around the world. He reaffirmed the dedication of NASA and the Biden-Harris Administration to combating the effects of climate change.

Tens of thousands of meteorological stations’ data on surface air temperatures and data from ship- and buoy-based devices’ measurements of sea surface temperatures are combined to create NASA’s temperature record, known as GISTEMP. The analysis determines temperature anomalies, which demonstrate how far the temperature has deviated from the base average between 1951 and 1980.

The return of El-Nino

The return of El Nino, a natural climate phenomenon that is characterised by warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, is largely to blame for the summer’s record warmth, according to Josh Willis, a climate scientist and oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The record-breaking summer of 2023 is part of a long-term warming trend that is mostly caused by greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. However, natural El Nino occurrences frequently coincide with the hottest years on record, adding additional heat to the atmosphere on a worldwide scale.

Climate Change

Willis forewarned us that climate change is making our current heatwaves longer, hotter, and more punitive. Additionally, he pointed out that because the atmosphere can now store more water, it is even more difficult for the human body to control its temperature in hot and humid weather.

The most notable effects of El Nino are anticipated by scientists to occur in February, March, and April 2024. The phenomena frequently causes dryness in nations in the western Pacific and cooler, wetter circumstances in the US Southwest.

Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist and the head of GISS, issued a warning that if humans continue to release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, climate change will worsen.

Human-caused Global Warming

August 2023 broke the previous August record by a wide margin, according to NASA, Berkeley Earth, the Japan Meteorological Agency, and the European Copernicus Climate Change Service. The NOAA database contains assessments of the global temperature going back to 1850.

According to a Climate Central analysis, 1.5 billion people worldwide experienced extreme temperatures at this level for all 92 days of the June-August period, while 3.9 billion people worldwide experienced extreme temperatures for more than 30 days. These extreme temperatures were made at least three times more likely by climate change. Global warming has increased the likelihood of intense heat by at least two times, exposing almost 98% of the world’s population to it.

Conclusion

Our planet Earth is being driven head-on into a wall by us. A group of people are discussing whether or not there is a wall, whether we are standing lead-footed on the gas, whether we should think about applying the brake, and whether there is even a brake at all. Nobody knows why, but it’s concerning: if someone has a fever and their bones are aching, they go to the doctor; similarly, we should do everything in our power to restore the climate to the levels at which people could live in relative comfort.  Leaning back and stating “it was always like this, climate changed, and people died” is weird because who would adopt the same approach if they were given the news that they had cancer?

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