Weather tracker: Nasa confirms world’s hottest July despite UK downpours
At the start of this week Nasa announced that July 2023 had the highest global temperature recorded for that month since 1880. It was also the warmest month on record.
Readers in the UK may find this hard to believe, given the wet and generally miserable conditions in the country that month. Britain received 19% less sunshine and 170% more rain compared with the 1991-2020 average.
Cooler temperatures accompanied relatively cloudy and wet conditions, with the temperature in central England lower in July than in June – the first time this has happened since 1970.
Around the world, however, July was 0.24C warmer than any other in Nasa’s records, and 2.1C warmer than the 1951-80 climate average.
The data comprises observations of sea surface temperatures and surface air temperatures. The raw figures are analysed to remove any bias, such as those arising from urban areas and spatial variations, before the results are calculated.
These observations are influenced by the El Niñophase of the eastern Pacific Ocean, which began developing in May. The warming of the sea surface contributes to global temperatures. However, an El Niñoevent contributes only a small amount of year-to-year variability in global temperatures.
Such contributions during the development of an El Niñoevent are not usually this noticeable during summer in the northern hemisphere, and Nasa has said it expects the biggest impact from this El Niñoto occur between February and April 2024.
This developing El Niñois not the sole cause of the warm July, with Nasa records showing the previous five hottest Julys occurred in the past five years. This included a rare triple-dip La Niñaphase, in which sea surface temperatures cooled for three consecutive years, thus pointing to climate change as an important influence on the July temperatures.
With wildfires frequently in the news, a devastating blaze broke out in the Canary Islands this week, its severity aggravated by the arid landscape caused by the recent European heatwave.
The blaze, which erupted on Tuesday night, spread across steep forested areas in north-eastern Tenerife, with the arrival of firefighters delayed by the challenging terrain.
Spanish authorities evacuated about 150 people from six villages and closed the Mount Teide volcano, a popular tourist attraction.