The world registered its hottest ever day on Monday as temperatures surged across the globe, according to data released by the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP).
Media reports said:
The U.S. governmental body, which delivers national and global climate guidance and forecasts from its headquarters in Maryland, said on Tuesday that it recorded an average global temperature of 17.01 degrees Celsius (62.62F) on Monday. This surpasses the previous high of 16.92 degrees Celsius (62.46F) from August 2016.
“This is not a milestone we should be celebrating,” climate scientist Friederike Otto said on Tuesday. “It is a death sentence for people and ecosystem.”
The warning comes as many southern U.S. states remain in the grips of extreme heat in recent days. Corpus Christi, a city in Texas, registered a record temperature in June of 51 degrees Celsius (125F). Similar temperatures have also been recorded in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana.
China
China has seen a prolonged heatwave, during which Beijing experienced almost ten days straight where temperatures exceeded 35 degrees Celsius (95F). Some regions in North Africa recorded temperatures approaching 50 degrees Celsius (122F).
Antarctica
Even Antarctica, which is currently in its winter, recently experienced relatively balmy temperatures of 8.7 degrees Celsius (47.6F), breaking its July record.
Climate scientists have said that climate change, coupled with a strong El Nino warm-weather pattern, are responsible for the unusually high temperatures – and that there is more to come.
Zeke Hausfather, a researcher at the Berkeley Earth land temperature data analysis group, said in a statement to Reuters that the ongoing weather anomaly is “only the first in a series of new records this year.”
World’s Coldest Village Sets New Summer Temperature Record
Another media report said:
A new high temperature record has been set in the village of Oymyakon in Russia’s Far East, known internationally as the world’s coldest permanently inhabited settlement. Wildfires have occurred in the region as a result of a recent heatwave.
Temperatures in the village, which is located in the remote Yakutia region or Sakha Republic, reached 32 degrees Celsius (89.6F) on Monday, according to local media, surpassing the previous record of 30.5 degrees Celsius set on the same day in 1949.
The head of the Sakha Republic, Aisen Nikolaev, declared a state of emergency in the region on Monday as massive wildfires spread over the weekend. On his Telegram channel, Nikolaev noted that the Oymyakon district was among the worst affected.
Oymyakon is among the coldest places in the Northern Hemisphere, having recorded a low temperature of -67.7 degrees Celsius (-89.9F) in 1933. However, an unverified record was set seven years earlier, when a low of -71.2 degrees Celsius was reported.
Despite the extreme weather conditions, Oymyakon has a permanent population of around 500 people.
Climate change poses a particularly acute threat to Yakutia, as much of its infrastructure is built on permafrost. Experts warn that thawing could lead to major social and economic ramifications in the region.
Indian Heatwave’s Toll: Nearly 100 Dead
An earlier media report said:
At least 96 people have died following several days of intense heat in two of India’s most populous states. Authorities have warned at-risk members of the public to stay indoors to avoid aggravating pre-existing health conditions.
The deceased were primarily people over 60 who had prior health concerns in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and in eastern Bihar, authorities said. All of the 54 deaths in Uttar Pradesh occurred in Ballia district, where hospitals have admitted a steady influx of patients seeking treatment for heat-related ailments including high fever, vomiting, diarrhea, as well as breathing and cardiac issues.
Uttar Pradesh’s health minister, Brijesh Pathak, has opened an investigation into the high number of deaths in the state. Local governments have come under fire from opposition for “carelessness” in not warning the public about the potential health risks of the heatwave, the BBC said on Monday.
“This has never happened in Ballia,” local resident RS Pathak said last weekend, via the Associated Press. “People fear venturing out. The roads and markets are largely deserted.”
Ballia recorded a maximum temperature of 43C (109F) – figures which eclipse the normal average by around 5C. Humidity of 25% is also contributing to the sweltering heat.
India typically experiences its hottest annual temperatures in the summer months of April, May and June before the monsoon season reduces the heat. However, the past decade has seen the country grapple with unusually intense, rising heat which often leads to water shortages in the country of 1.4 billion people.
30 Times
A study conducted by an academic group earlier this year determined that intense heatwaves in South Asia have been made around 30 times more likely as a result of human-induced climate change. India has seen a 55% rise in heat-related deaths from 2000 to 2021, according to analysis in the scientific journal The Lancet.
© OCHA
Heatwaves Could Make Entire Regions Uninhabitable
In October 2022 the United Nations warned:
Scorching heatwaves fueled by climate change could leave some areas of the world virtually uninhabitable over the coming decades.
The UN warning came in a report.
The UN warned: Extreme weather could push poorer nations to the brink of disaster.
Published jointly by the Red Cross and the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Monday, the document points to intensifying heatwaves around the world, saying they are growing at an “alarming rate” and already “fueling catastrophes” in some countries.
“Our current trajectories, heatwaves could meet and exceed physiological and social limits in the coming decades, including in regions such as the Sahel, and South and South-West Asia, the report said, saying some areas risk becoming “practically uninhabitable.”
It said: “The impacts would include large-scale suffering and loss of life, population movements and further entrenched inequality. These impacts are already emerging.”
Highly populated cities are among the most vulnerable areas, with the UN citing a projected 700% increase in the number of urban poor people living in “extreme heat conditions” by the 2050s.
The Poorest
According to the report, the world’s poorest will bear the worst effects of the changing climate.
Rising temperatures and more frequent heatwaves are also expected to “undermine agriculture and livestock systems, degrade natural resources, damage infrastructure and contribute to migration,” the report found, noting that economic losses related to “heat stress” will exceed $2.4 trillion worldwide by 2030.
Past heatwaves have had deadly consequences, estimated to have caused more than 70,000 excess deaths in Europe in 2003, and another 55,000 in Russia in 2010, according to statistics cited by the UN.
The report said “aggressive steps” were needed to avoid the worst outcomes, insisting that the “single most important arena for action is in slowing and stopping climate change.” Short of that, however, it suggested providing “early information on heatwaves” to help people “take timely action” to protect themselves, adapt new responses to “accelerating extreme heat” and investments into “thermally appropriate emergency housing” among other things.
