Scientists predict 2023 to be warmest year on Earth

WASHINGTON – Scientists are predicting that 2023 could be the warmest year on record, thus worsening the climate crisis.

The month of June noted a record high in global surface temperatures, which averaged 1.5 degrees Celsius above normal.

Interestingly, the oceans recorded higher-than-normal temperatures in May.

A senior official from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said that every fraction of a degree is important and has serious consequences for the Earth.

“The world has just experienced its warmest early June on record, following a month of May that was less than 0.1°C cooler than the warmest May on record,” Samantha Burgess deputy director of C3S said in a statement.

She said climate monitoring has become more important than ever in determining how global temperatures are rising.

The last time a temperature rise was observed was in 2015, but mainly in the Northern Hemisphere during winter and early spring.

According to scientists, it is the first-time average temperatures rose above 1.5 °C in June.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S. noted that Antarctic ice receded to record levels last month due to the rise in temperatures.

Already this year, warm spring temperatures have had consequences, from unprecedented wildfires in Canada that smothered the eastern and Midwestern U.S. in smoke to fish kills in the Gulf of Mexico.

Scientists warn that warmer oceans favor stronger tropical storms, and a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture that can worsen flooding.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned in May that there is a 66 percent chance that El Niño, combined with climate change, will raise average temperatures by more than 1.5 °C.

El Niño occurs when warm water accumulates along the equator in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The warm ocean surface warms the atmosphere, allowing moisture-rich air to rise and develop into rain storms.