'We should not be at all surprised with the high global temperatures,' one expert said. 'This is a stark reminder of what we've known for a long time, and we will see ever more extremes until we stop building up more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.'
It is hot. Very hot. And we are only a few weeks into summer.
The average world temperature hit 16.89C on Monday 3 July and topped 17C for the first time on 4 July, with an average global temperature of 17.04C.Chart showing record global temperature But most of the heat stored near the surface of the Earth is not in the atmosphere, but in the oceans. And we've been seeing some record ocean temperatures this spring and summer.
"Such anomalous temperatures in this part of the North Atlantic are unheard of," says Daniela Schmidt, a professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol.El Niño is a recurring weather pattern caused when warm waters rise to the surface off the coast of South America and spread across the ocean.
"When that happens, a lot of that heat gets released into the atmosphere," says Prof Lenton, "driving up air temperatures."It's easy to think of this exceptionally hot weather as unusual, but the depressing truth is that climate change means it is now normal to experience record-breaking temperatures.
Experts are already predicting that the developing El Niño is likely to make 2023 the world's hottest year.And that is just the start. Unless we make dramatic reductions to greenhouse gas emissions, temperatures will continue to rise.
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