Temperature records boiled across multiple continents, raising severe concerns about the Earth’s fast-evolving climate change.
Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York have officially confirmed that July 2023 held the hottest global temperature ever in recorded history.
The US space agency said July 2023 was 0.24 degrees Celsius warmer than any other July in NASA’s record, and it was 1.18 °C hotter than the average July between 1951 and 1980.
According to NASA data, the five hottest Julys since 1880 have all happened in the last five years.
“This July was not just warmer than any previous July – it was the warmest month in our record, which goes back to 1880,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt.
“The science is clear this isn’t normal. Alarming warming around the world is driven primarily by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. And that rise in average temperatures is fueling dangerous extreme heat that people are experiencing here at home and worldwide,” Schmidt added.
NASA forms its temperature record from surface air temperature data from countless metrological stations, in addition to sea surface temperature data gathered by ship and buoy-based devices.
Evidence of the heat rise comes amid the deadliest wildfire in recent US history that has consumed the town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui, killing at least 93 people and displacing hundreds of people.
Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent his condolences to the President of the United States, Joe Biden, on Saturday following the deadly wildfire.
During a press conference on Saturday, Hawaii governor Josh Green cautioned that the death toll is likely to increase as authorities continue on-the-ground searches.
“It will certainly be the worst natural disaster that Hawaii ever faced…We can only wait and support those who are living. Our focus now is to reunite people when we can and get them housing and get them health care, and then turn to rebuilding,” Green said, as quoted by CBS News.
