Hot enough for ya?
New research reveals this summer to have been the warmest ever on record, with experts saying there’s more extreme heat where that came from.
The not-surprising news comes as July 4 of this year was declared the hottest day ever recorded on Earth.
June, July, and August were “the warmest on record globally by a large margin, with an average temperature of 16.77°C [62.2 F], 0.66°C above average,” reported the European Union-backed Copernicus Climate Change Service.
And the year may not be done breaking records, scientists say.
“2023 is currently ranked as the second warmest [year], at only 0.01ºC behind 2016 with four months of the year remaining,” Samathana Burgess, Deputy Director of the Service said of the data, which spans back to 1940.
The findings also noted that this summer “saw above-average precipitation” throughout a bulk of the world which led to “local rainfall records broken leading to flooding in some cases.”
Additionally, it was pointed out how “drier-than-average conditions” elsewhere “led to significant wildfires” in places like Canada — which notoriously left the Big Apple choking on smoky air last June.
Another contributing factor which puts 2023 above the rest is an aggressive, El Niño weather pattern which has global impact on winds and water currents.
“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 after the July 4th news broke.
Burgess also stressed that there are rapid changes occurring with water temperatures as well.
“The global ocean saw in August both the warmest daily surface temperature on record, and it’s the warmest month on record,” Burgess added.
This phenomenon of noticeably warmer waters is also a major factor as to why shark sightings are exponentially increasing — especially off New York shores — Captain Tom LaCognata of Rockaway Fishing Charters previously told The Post.
“We had a great white last year about three miles offshore — we’re getting sharks from down south now too, spinner sharks and bull sharks. We had not seen those in the past,” he said.
