The image released this Wednesday is based on data from the Monitoring Service of Climate change (C3S) and shows the surface air temperature anomaly for July 2023 in Europe. The scientists highlight the image of the European continent, but note that globally there were regions where temperatures were 7 degrees Celsius above the average for that time of year.
In this Wednesday’s statement, scientists from the European program highlight the “deviation of more than 0.7 degrees Celsius, compared to the average of the years 1991 to 2020, from July 2023” in Europe. What we see, they underline, are the marks of the hottest July ever recorded.
Portugal was spared the furnace that heated the Mediterranean thanks to the anticyclone of the Azores. However, in Portugal, thermometers rose in the first days of August, with the highest maximum temperature of this year recorded on Monday and a series of devastating fires in various areas of the country, with the fire in Odemira resisting for several days. and to prove to be the most critical case.
C3S/ECMWF
In a more detailed document, the Copernicus program leaves some examples of the excessive heat felt in the month of July. “There were heat waves from Spain in the west to the Balkans in the east. [da Europa]. Many new local temperature records were set, while other records were close to being broken. A temperature of 48 degrees Celsius was recorded at a site in Sardinia and 47 at an observatory in Palermo, Sicily. In Greece, temperatures reached a maximum of 46 degrees Celsius.”
“Numerous regions of the Northern Hemisphere, in particular Southern Europe, experienced severe heat waves, with anomalies of more than 4 degrees Celsius in Italy, Greece and Spain. In addition, North Africa and the arctic Canadian territory recorded significantly higher temperatures, reaching maximum anomalies of more than 5 degrees Celsius and more than 7 degrees Celsius, respectively.
In the southern hemisphere, mid-winter temperatures were also well above average, notably in northern Chile and Argentina, and in Uruguay and southern Brazil. “The monitoring time series of the climate for a wide range of observation stations in Argentina provide examples of occasionally very high daytime temperatures and generally mild nighttime conditions in the Northwest of the country. Many months of above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation have contributed to a serious water shortage in Uruguay”, reports the Copernicus bulletin on the abnormal month of July.
But, note the scientists, there were also regions where it was colder than usual at this time of year. But these are rare cases. “Below-than-average temperatures occurred only over a small fraction of the Earth’s surface and, for the most part, were within 1 degree Celsius of the average. The land mass of Antarctica was the main exception, with a mixture of temperatures well above and below average, as is often the case in winter.”
The oceans also warmed, particularly in the North Atlantic. “Air temperatures were above average across much of the ocean, associated with record sea surface temperatures. Exceptionally high marine temperatures were observed across much of the North Atlantic in particular.”
Meanwhile, in the Pacific, the conditions imposed by the phenomenon of El Niño continued to settle. “Air temperatures were unusually high around Antarctica, where sea ice coverage continued to be much lower than normal. The regions of relatively mild temperatures extended northwards, from the Antarctic, over much of the South Atlantic and the Indian and Pacific Oceans”, conclude the specialists of the European climate monitoring program.
Elsewhere on the planet, air temperatures were also higher than the 1991-2020 average in most tropical and North Pacific regions, with temperatures particularly high east of Japan.
