Everything seems to indicate that 2023 will be a year in which we will experience extreme heat even greater than 2022. This according to the National Meteorological Service of the United Kingdomwhich ensures that the coming year will have one of the highest average global temperatures ever recorded.
In fact, 2023 will mark the tenth consecutive year where temperatures are at least one degree—on average—above the pre-industrial average. The Earth is expected to experience a temperature increase of between 1.08º and 1.32º Celsius above the average recorded in 1900, which was when we began to burn fossil fuels.
The increase and arrival of extreme heat in 2023 is influenced by two main reasons. On the one hand, the end of the cycle of The girl, which tends to attract lower temperatures to the surface of the Pacific Ocean. This cycle is usually three years and ends in 2023.
On the other hand, there are the emissions of gases that cause the greenhouse effect. Next year they will continue to rise, surpassing the records of 2022. Bringing us ever closer to an inevitable climate disaster.
One degree Celsius doesn’t sound like much, but it has a ripple effect on climate globally.
A one degree Celsius increase in the global average temperature doesn’t sound like much, but it is. These changes have a domino effect that generates the extreme heat that we have already experienced in recent years. Including never-before-seen massive wildfires, endless heatwaves, and widespread droughts in different regions of the world.
Spain, for example, experienced the worst heat wave in the country’s history in 2022, according to data from the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET). Not only was it the longest —between July 9 and 18— it was also the largest in territorial extension. It affected 36 provinces and it is estimated that she was responsible for the death of 500 people.
Extremely hot climates, in turn, cause an imbalance that intensifies some of the climatic phenomena that have recently been experienced during winter. Unexpected snowfall in regions where it shouldn’t happen, extreme cold weather—like the one the United States and Canada is going through right now—or devastating storms.
The extreme heat of 2022 is evidence that much more concrete action is needed
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) issued a release on December 23, warning of the need to take concrete actions, after the climatic effects that we have experienced during 2022, including the extreme heat waves that have broken all previously recorded records.
“This year we have faced several climatic disasters that have cost too many lives, damaging health, food, energy, access to drinking water and even infrastructure. A third of Pakistan was flooded, with devastating economic effects and human losses. They suffered record-breaking heat waves in China, Europe, North and South America.The endless drought in the Horn of Africa could spell a humanitarian catastrophe, explained Petera Taalas, Secretary General of the WMO.
The WMO also warns that, although 2022 was not the hottest year in history – it was 2016 – it did have some of the most intense weather events on record. Including all-time high temperature records, repeated extreme heat waves across different regions of Europe and South America, with Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay experiencing some of the highest temperatures ever recorded.