WASHINGTON — For the 10th month in a row, Earth has broken global intensity records — with February, the coldest time of year overall, and the world's seas setting new high-temperature benchmarks, according to the European Copernicus Environmental Association.
The most recent record in this global hot streak of environmental change includes ocean surface temperatures that weren't exactly the hottest in February, but were eclipsed in any month on record, taking their toll on August 2023, but rising toward the end of the month. What's more, February, also the last two cold months, exceeded the globally set limit for long-range warming, Copernicus detailed on Wednesday.
The last month that did not set the standard for most smoking months was May 2023, and that was just ahead of 2020 and 2016. Copernicus records have been steadily declining since June.
February 2024 found a mean of 13.54 degrees Celsius (56.37 degrees Fahrenheit), beating the old record of 2016 by about an eighth of a degree. Copernicus determined that February was 1.77 degrees Celsius (3.19 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the end of the 19th century. Just last December was more above the pre-modern levels of the month than February.
In the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world set a goal to try to keep warming to or below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). The Copernicus data is month-to-month and not exactly a similar framework of estimates for the Paris limit, which sits as an average over several decades. Be that as it may, information from the Copernicus program shows that the last eight months, from July 2023, exceeded 1.5 levels of warming.
Environmental researchers say that much of the record heat comes from a human-made environmental difference in the outflows of carbon dioxide and methane from the consumption of coal, oil and combustible gas. The extraordinary intensity comes from the signature El Nino, a warming of the central Pacific that changes global weather patterns.
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"Given the areas of strength for Nino from mid-2023, it is not unexpected to see above-typical global temperatures as El Ninos suck heat from the sea into the environment, raising air temperatures. Be that as it may, the record-shattering total is worrying." said Woodwell Environment Exploration Center environmental researcher Jennifer Francis, who was not essential to the calculations.
“What's more, we also see an advancing 'problem area' over the ice, where the rate of warming is much faster than that of the entire globe, causing a flurry of effects on fisheries, the environment, melting ice and altered ocean currents. designs that have lasting and far-reaching impacts,” added Francis.
The record high sea temperatures outside the Pacific, where El Nino is involved, show that it is more than just a regular impact, said Francesca Guglielmo, lead environmental researcher for the Copernicus programme.
North Atlantic surface temperatures have been on record for — apart from a specific date — a consistently strong year since Walk 5, 2023, “often by seemingly unimaginable edges,” College of Miami tropical researcher Brian McNoldy noted.
2023 was the hottest year on record and 2024 could be much more terrible
These additional marine areas "are a side effect of an ozone-depleting substance that has been trapped and accumulated over many years," Francis said in an email. "This intensity is currently increasing and driving air temperatures into unknown territory."
"These atypically high temperatures are exceptionally concerning," said Cornell College environmental researcher Natalie Mahowald. "To avoid significantly higher temperatures, we really want to act quickly to reduce CO2 emissions."
It was the warmest winter - December, January and February - by almost a quarter of a degree, beating 2016, which was also an El Nino year. The three-month time frame was the most of any season to exceed pre-modern levels in the Copernicus record going back to 1940.
Francis said on a scale of 1 to 10 about how dire the situation is, she gives what's happening right now a "10, but before long we're going to need another scale because what's a 10 today will be a five later unless society can stop the development of intensity-trapping gases."
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