Climate change, El Nino drive hottest June on record, EU monitor reports

PARIS — The world saw its hottest June on record last month, the European Union's climate monitoring service said on Thursday, as climate change and the El Nino weather pattern looked likely to drive another scorching northern summer.

The EU monitor Copernicus Climate Change Service, or C3S, also said preliminary data showed that Tuesday was the hottest day ever recorded — beating the record set only the day before.

It is the latest in a series of records halfway through a year that has already seen a drought in Spain and fierce heat waves in China as well as the United States.

"The month was the warmest June globally at just over 0.5 C above the 1991-2020 average, exceeding June 2019 — the previous record — by a substantial margin," the monitor said in a statement from its C3S climate unit.

Temperatures reached June records across northwestern Europe while parts of Canada, the US, Mexico, Asia and eastern Australia "were significantly warmer than normal", C3S noted.

On the other hand, it was cooler than normal in Western Australia, the western US and western Russia, it said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said "the situation we are witnessing now is the demonstration that climate change is out of control".

He reiterated his wish that "developed countries can get to net-zero emissions as close as possible to 2040 and the emerging economies as close as possible to 2050".

The tumbling records reflect the impact of global warming driven by greenhouse gases released from human activity.

Copernicus said preliminary data showed a global average temperature of 17.03 C on Tuesday, beating another record of 16.88 C already set on Monday.

For June, Copernicus noted that sea surface temperatures were higher globally than any previous June on record, with "extreme marine heat waves" around Ireland, the United Kingdom and the Baltic.

Antarctic sea ice reached its lowest extent for June at 17 percent below average since satellite observations began.

C3S scientist Julien Nicolas said the June record was driven largely by "very warm ocean surface temperatures" in the Pacific and Atlantic due to El Nino, a periodic warming phenomenon.

Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the UN's World Meteorological Organization, warned on Monday that 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".

He urged governments "to mobilize preparations to limit the impacts on our health, our ecosystems and our economies".

In the US, officials said last week that at least 13 people died from an extreme heat wave in Texas and Louisiana.

After a record hot June in Britain, water use restrictions were imposed in parts of southeastern England, and Scotland put regions on water scarcity alert.

Agencies via Xinhua