After months of record planetary warmth, temperatures have become even more abnormal in recent weeks — nearing a key climate threshold and adding to near-certainty that 2023 will be the warmest year on record.
above preindustrial averages. Scientists have said it is not out of reach, however, and said the latest spike of heat underscores the importance of climate action.“Decades of burning fossil fuels and deforestation have pumped heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, and the vast majority of that heat is absorbed by the oceans.
Hausfather called it “a foregone conclusion” that September marks a third consecutive month of record-setting average global temperatures.If temperatures remain as abnormally warm as they are now, the planetary average could for the first time on an annual basis surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming above preindustrial temperatures, HausfatherThe temperature anomalies have grown even as, in absolute terms, the planet is cooling ahead of, which marks the start of fall in the Northern Hemisphere.
El Niño is nonetheless likely a major driver behind the warm trend because it creates Pacific trade wind patterns that encourage more heat to be released from the ocean and trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. With that El Niño pattern only expected to strengthen, reaching a peak during the Northern Hemisphere winter, that warmth may become even more anomalous over the coming year, said Michael Mann, a climate scientist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Other factors may be contributing to the warming, Hausfather said: Reduced emissions from shipping liners, allowing more sunlight to reach the oceans; the 2022 eruption of the South Pacific underwater