Photo: FREDERICK FLORIN/AFP/Getty Images
The Earth just broke its record for the warmest month of June and 2023 could become the warmest year on the planet, according to data recently published by several agencies.
June’s global average surface temperatures, including over land and ocean, were warmer than any year since 1850, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released Thursday.
Last June surpassed the previous record for warm June 2020 and it was the first time the June deviation from the average was greater than 1 degree Celsius in NOAA’s 174-year database.
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June 2023 also marked the 47th consecutive month of June and the 532nd consecutive month with temperatures higher than the average of the 20th century.
For the third month in a row, the global ocean surface temperature hit an all-time high. as the weak El Niño conditions that emerged in May continued to strengthen in June.
Globally, June 2023 set a record for the highest monthly sea surface temperature anomaly of any month in the NOAA climate record.
These findings matched other data from Berkeley Earth, NASA’s Global Institute for Space Studies, and the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
The eight hottest Junes on the planet have occurred since 2015, according to NOAA.
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Oceans drove record warm June
Sea surface temperatures over the planet’s oceans were by far the warmest of any June on record since the mid-19th century. In fact, ocean heat was above average for any month since 1850according to NOAA.
One contributing factor to this record heat was the intensification of El Niño, the periodic warming of a fringe of the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
another was exceptional and widespread warmth in the tropical and eastern North Atlantic Ocean. A weaker-than-usual subtropical high pressure caused lighter trade winds that did not allow cooler-than-usual water to rise to the surface in the North Atlantic tropical basin.
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