July 6 (UPI) — Data from the University of Maine show Wednesday set another record by charting the unofficial record high in the average global temperature.
The university’s Climate Reanalyzer model shows the average global temperature reached 17.18 degrees Celsius, or 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit. That matched the average from Tuesday, but was about 0.3 degrees F warmer than the previous record set Monday.
That previous record for the average global temperature was 62.46 degrees in 2016. While the average temperature seems cool relative to summer temperatures in the United States, extreme temperatures were felt worldwide.
High temperature warnings were in place for the Ionion Islands off mainland Greece and, while cooler than late June temperatures, heat advisories were in place from southern Florida to northern Maine, where the “real feel” temperature is expected to flirt with 100 degrees Thursday.
Meteorologists have warned that an El Nino event was likely to prolong extreme temperatures into the coming months, raising the potential for even more heat records.
In 2016, the year of the last El Nino, high temperatures set records as the weather phenomenon drove global warming along with heat-trapping carbon emissions.
The World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday those two factors will likely again “supercharge” extreme weather conditions globally as the new El Nino gets underway.
“The onset of El Nino will greatly increase the likelihood of breaking temperature records and triggering more extreme heat in many parts of the world and in the ocean,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said.
The organization said there is a 90% probability that El Nino will continue through the end of the year. As with the recent outbreak of fires across the northern portion of North America, at least some of the warming trends can be attributed to human activity.
A report this week from Global Forest Watch and the University of Maryland found the area of primary tropical forest cut or burnt down in 2022 grew by 10% from 2021 to 15,830 square miles. That in turn led to the release of 3 billion tons of CO2, or as much as India’s total annual emissions from fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, plumes of methane, which has a warming potential far greater than carbon dioxide, are coming from oil and gas installations across the globe.
WMO Director of Climate Services Chris Hewitt said the elevated, and durable, heat waves should be setting off alarm bells even amid global efforts to control climate change.
“I[t] is yet another wake-up call, or an early warning, that we are not yet going in the right direction to limit the warming to within the targets set in Paris in 2015 designed to substantially reduce the impacts of climate change,” Hewitt said.