The WMO warns that 2024 can beat the record heat of 2023 due to El Niño

   MADRID, 12 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The World Meteorological Organization warns that 2024 could be even hotter than 2023, given that the El Niño event usually has the greatest impact on global temperatures after reaching its peak.

This body has officially confirmed that 2023 is the warmest year ever recorded, "by a huge margin." The annual average global temperature approached 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels, symbolic because the Paris Agreement on climate change aims to limit long-term temperature rise (averaged over decades rather than a individual year such as 2023) at no more than 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels, it states in a statement.

Six international data sets used to monitor global temperatures and consolidated by the WMO show that the annual average global temperature was 1.45/- 0.12 °C above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900) in 2023. The temperatures Global markets in each month between June and December established new monthly records. July and August were the two hottest months on record.

"The transition from the cooling of La Niña to the warming of El Niño (oscillations with a global impact on the surface temperature of the equatorial Pacific Ocean) by mid-2023 is clearly reflected in the increase in temperature compared to last year. Since "El Niño typically has the biggest impact on global temperatures after peaking, 2024 could be even hotter," said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

"Climate change is the biggest challenge facing humanity. It is affecting us all, especially the most vulnerable. We cannot afford to wait any longer. We are already taking action, but we have to do more and we have to do it quickly. We need to make drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the transition to renewable energy sources," he said.

Since the 1980s, each decade has been warmer than the last. The last nine years have been the warmest on record. The years 2016 (strong El Niño) and 2020 were previously ranked as the warmest on record, at 1.29/- 0.12°C and 1.27/- 0.12°C above the pre-industrial era.

Based on the six data sets, the ten-year average 2014-2023 was 1.20/- 0.12°C above the 1850-1900 average, allowing for a margin of uncertainty.

"Humanity's actions are burning the earth. 2023 was a mere preview of the catastrophic future that awaits us if we do not act now. We must respond to record temperature increases with innovative measures," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres .

The WMO consolidated figures draw on six international data sets to provide an authoritative assessment of temperature. 2023 was ranked as the warmest year in all six data sets.

WMO uses datasets based on climatological data from observing sites, ships and buoys in global marine networks, developed and maintained by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (NASA GISS), the Met Office Hadley Center of the United Kingdom and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia (HadCRUT) and the Berkeley Earth Group.

The WMO also uses reanalysis data sets from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and its Copernicus Climate Change Service, and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). The reanalysis combines millions of meteorological and marine observations, including those from satellites, using a meteorological model to produce a complete reanalysis of the atmosphere.

CONFIRMED BY NASA

In line with the WMO, the analysis presented by NASA this January 12 confirms that in 2023, the average temperature of the Earth's surface was the warmest ever recorded. Global temperatures last year were about 1.2 degrees Celsius above the average for NASA's reference period (1951 to 1980), scientists at the Goddard Institute for Space Research (GISS) reported. from NASA in New York.