July equals or perhaps exceeds the hottest month on record

July, at least, equaled, if not surpassed, the hottest month on record, according to new data from the World Meteorological Organization and the Copernicus climate change program. The event comes after the month of June also broke its own record for higher temperatures. The available instrumental records allow to compare the temperatures with series that begin towards the middle of the XIX century approximately.

According to the results of the first 29 days of the month, July 2019 will be on par and possibly a little warmer than the previous warmest July, that of 2016, which was also the warmest month on record.

July, at least, equaled, if not surpassed, the hottest month on record, according to new data from the World Meteorological Organization and the Copernicus climate change program. The event comes after the month of June also broke its own record for higher temperatures. The available instrumental records allow to compare the temperatures with series that begin towards the middle of the XIX century approximately.

This is reported by the World Meteorological Organization, which is based on data from copernicus’ climate change programme, administered by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

These data are particularly significant because July 2016 was conditioned by one of the strongest El Niño episodes – strong warming of the waters of the tropical Pacific with an impact around the world – which contributes to raising global temperatures. Unlike 2016, 2019 has not been marked by a strong El Niño.

The year 2019, on its way to being one of the five hottest

“All this means that we are on track for the period 2015-2019 to be the five hottest years on record,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in announcing the data in New York. “This year alone, we’ve seen temperature records being broken from New Delhi to Anchorage, from Paris to Santiago, from Adelaide to the Arctic Circle. If we don’t take action on climate change now, these extreme weather events will become just the tip of the iceberg,” added António Guterres, announcing the data.

Weather services have observed exceptional heat around the world in the past week. Some European countries have recorded record temperatures that have caused disruptions to transport and infrastructure and caused impacts on people’s health and the environment. As the dominance of heat has spread in the northern areas (Scandinavia and Greenland) the rate of ice melt that was already above average throughout the Arctic Circle has accelerated. “July has rewritten climate history, with dozens of new temperature records at the local, national and global levels,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

Dramatic melting of ice and Arctic fires

“The extraordinary heat was accompanied by a dramatic melting of ice in Greenland, in the Arctic and in European glaciers. Unprecedented wildfires occurred in the Arctic for the second month in a row, and have devastated forests that were virgin and used to absorb carbon dioxide, so that they became sources of greenhouse gases. This is not science fiction. It is the reality of climate change. It’s happening now and it will get worse in the future without urgent climate action,” Taalas said.

WMO expects 2019 to be one of the five warmest years on record and 2015-2019 to become the warmest compared to previous five-year periods. “Time is running out to handle dangerous temperature increases with multiple impacts on our planet,” Taalas said.

The current heat waves are consistent with what climatologists expect from climate change and rising global temperatures.

Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom had the highest temperatures in their history (since records are made) on July 25, so their weather maps were redesigned to include, for the first time, temperatures above 40 °C. Paris recorded its hottest day on record, with a temperature of 42.6 °C at 4:32 p.m., a value unprecedented since the beginning of the measurements.

Finland touched 34 degrees

The heat wave was caused by hot air coming from North Africa and Spain and then was transported from Central Europe to Scandinavia, In Norway “tropical nights” were lived on July 7 and 28, with records above 20 ° C. The Finnish capital Helsinki set a new record (33.2 °C) on July 28 and in southern Finland, in Porvoo, 33.7 °C was measured.

Abnormally high temperatures are expected to intensify the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which already experienced an extensive thaw episode between June 11 and 20. The intense melting and runoff produced in recent weeks means that when the melting season ends (around mid-September) it is expected that the loss of ice mass may approach a volume similar to the record figure of 2012, according to scientists.

The rate of melting of the Arctic Ocean is comparable to the maximum records reached in 2012

The Nord station, located 900 kilometers from the North Pole, measured a temperature of 16 °C and in western Greenland, the Qaarsut station (about 71 °N) recorded a temperature of 20.6 °C on July 30.

The heat will affect Arctic Ocean sea ice, where the loss of ice extent through the first half of July is similar to the rates of loss seen in 2012, the year it reached its smallest icy surface (in September), according to satellite records. Another effect was the fact that wildfires were fanned in the Arctic, including in Greenland, Alaska and Siberia.

Russia’s Federal Forestry Agency estimates that, as of July 29, forest fires in Siberia have burned 33,200 square kilometers, with 745 active fires, causing significant ecological devastation and a strong impact on air quality. The smoke can be clearly seen from space.

The European Medium Range Weather Forecast Centre/Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service estimated that _CO2 emissions from July 2019 wildfires for the Arctic Circle totaled 75.5047 megatons. This is comparable to Colombia’s annual fossil fuel emissions in 2017. It’s more than double the levels of July 2018.

“By burning vegetation, fires also reduce the biosphere’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide. Instead, action against climate change rather requires expanding this capacity,” said Oksana Tarasova, Head of WMO’s Atmosphere and Environment Research Division.

The July heatwave follows an unusually early and exceptionally intense heat wave in June, which set new temperature records in Europe and ensured that June was the hottest on record on the continent, with an average temperature of 2°C above normal.

The June Precedent

In some parts of Europe, the heat was accompanied by below-average rainfall levels. Next week, above-normal rainfall is expected in Central Europe, but this might not be enough to make up for rainfall deficits over the previous weeks and therefore soils will still be dry.

During the heat wave, national meteorological and hydrological services issued heat alerts.

The new absolute record of 42.6 °C for Paris was recorded on July 25 at the centennial weather station in Paris-Monstouris, and broke the previous record dating from July 28, 1947 with 40.4 ° C. This temperature is typical of the month of July in Baghdad. Lille recorded 41.4 °C, almost 4 °C above the previous record. France set a new national temperature record of 46°C during the last heat wave on June 28.

It was the second time Météo-France issued red-level warnings for a heat wave in France. The first time was during the June heat wave when several departments in the south were put on red alert. But it is unprecedented for Paris and the north of the country to be on red alert for a heat wave.

Thousands of hectares were burned by forest fires in northern France, where it is very rare to see forest fires.

Source: The Vanguard