From wildfires to floods, climate change disasters have been running rampant in the Northern Hemisphere, especially over the past month.
On Tuesday, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (CCCS) confirmed the average global temperature for July 2023 was the highest on record for any month.
According to the CCCS, July was 0.72 degrees Celsius warmer than the 1991-2020 average for the month and 0.33C warmer than the previous warmest month, which was July 2019.
Global temperatures reach record high
CCCS’ deputy director Samantha Burgess said we have seen global air temperatures and global ocean surface temperatures set new records in July.
“These records have dire consequences for both people and the planet exposed to ever more frequent and intense extreme events,” Ms Burgess said.
She added 2023 is currently the “third warmest year to date at 0.43C above the recent average, with the average global temperature in July at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels”.
Ms Burgess said despite the rise in temperature potentially being temporary, she warned urgent action was needed.
“Even if this is only temporary, it shows the urgency for ambitious efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, which are the main driver behind these records.”
The global sea surface temperature is another thing which has reached a record level high in July.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) uploaded a graph to the social media website X, formerly known as Twitter, which showed in July 2023, global average sea surface temperatures were 0.51C above the 1991-2020 average.
As the global air temperature and sea surface temperatures rise, the Northern Hemisphere has been hit hard with a flurry of climate-related disasters.
Here are some of the areas throughout the region which have been impacted the most:
Flooding across Asia
In July, hundreds of people were killed as flooding and landslides swept across the continent.
Beijing was hit with its heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years, following the wrath of Typhoon Doksuri which caused widespread damage.
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Reuters reported a reservoir in Beijing’s Changping district logged a precipitation reading of 744.8 millimetres from July 29 to August 3, exceeding the previous record of 609mm set in 1891.
In South Korea, more than 20 people were killed by landslides and flooding, over the past month.
Thousands of people also had to be evacuated as the country was hit with torrential rain.
Monsoon rain lashed down on Pakistan since late June, where 91 lives were claimed as a result of the extreme weather.
In India’s capital, officials raced to open jammed flood gates at a barrage on the river Yamuna to help drain out flood water that brought traffic to a standstill in parts of New Delhi.
According to the India Meteorological Department, in July, Delhi received 309mm of rainfall so far, which is the third highest for the month in at least 12 years.
Glacial flooding
A video of a house in Alaska’s capital Juneau has gone viral after it collapsed as a result of flooding after a glacial dam outburst.
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AP reported that the phenomenon is called a “jökuhlaup”, and while it’s relatively little-known in the US, researchers said such glacial floods could threaten about 15 million people around the world.
Extreme heatwaves hit Europe
In Europe, several countries have been battling extreme heat with temperatures rising to at least 40C across the Continent.
Italy, Spain and Greece suffered through heatwaves in July.
In Italy firefighters battled blazes in the southern region of Calabria and wildfires tore through Greece resulting in mass evacuations for thousands of people.
Fires are common in Greece but hotter, drier and windy summers have turned the country into a wildfire hotspot in recent years, AP reported.
Algeria, Croatia, Portugal, Türkiye, Spain and Tunisia have also been battling blazes as the Mediterranean nations were forced to fight deadly wildfires that tore through nature reserves and homes.
Was this predictable?
During a United Nations’ media briefing on Tuesday, WMO’s director of climate services Chris Hewitt said July being the “warmest month on record perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise”.
Mr Hewitt said the latest annual State of the Climate Report from WMO, stated that 2015 to 2022 were the eight warmest years on record, and this is on the back of a clear warming decade-on-decade.
“As we continue to see continued increases in concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, this long-term warming will continue and temperature records will continue to be broken.”