2023-07-12 13:33:00
The spring and summer of 2023 are reminiscent of the Olympic Games: record following record is broken. Only this is regarding temperature records, not regarding sports performance.
There is also significantly less to cheer than with Olympic gold. “This is worrying news for the planet,” Chris Hewitt, World Meterological Organization (WMO) climate chief, said of the first week of July, probably the warmest week on record. Climate change is ‘out of control’concluded UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Because of all those weather records and extreme weather conditions, you sometimes can’t see the wood for the trees. The four most important in a row.
1. Warmest June and (probably) warmest week on record
Last June was the warmest June ever measured, reports the WMO. The first week of July was probably the warmest week on record since the first measurements. No surprise, says NOS weatherman Gerrit Hiemstra. “Due to climate change, the earth as a whole is warming up. El Niño, which started this spring, adds to that. As a result, we are now seeing peak temperatures.”
The weather phenomenon El Niño occurs every 3 to 7 years. In Peru, less cold deep-sea water will then come to the surface, making the Pacific Ocean warmer. It then does not have a cooling effect on the global temperature, as is the case during La Niña, when cool seawater does come up.
Thanks to the combination of climate change and El Niño, Hiemstra expects 2023 to be the warmest year ever measured.
2. Extreme heat in southern Europe
It is extremely hot in southern Europe at the moment. In Sicily and Sardinia, temperatures can reach 47 or 48 degrees, bringing Italy close to European heat records. In 2021, the highest temperature ever in Europe was measured in Sicily: 48.8 degrees.
“This is real climate change,” says Peter Siegmund of KNMI. “Southern Europe is already dry. It only needs to get a little warmer for the soil to be completely exhausted. Then you no longer have evaporation, and no cooling due to that evaporation.” Meanwhile, the subtropics in the Northern Hemisphere are expanding further north, and climate change is creating greater contrasts: wetter where it’s wet and drier where it’s dry.
Hiemstra explains that this heat will simply be the future for the Mediterranean region. “What is extreme now will be normal in ten years. Many people don’t realize that. Soon forty degrees will simply be part of the climate there, and new, even higher extremes will occur.”
3. Particularly high sea temperatures
This spring, climate and ocean scientists took a concerned look at the North Atlantic, especially around the coast of Britain. There was a heat wave in the ocean, with the highest water surface temperatures ever recorded in the spring. The temperature is still relatively high, sees ocean scientist Erik van Sebille of Utrecht University, but not so extreme anymore.
That’s a slight relief. The extreme heat does not appear to be climate change that has gotten out of hand. “We think it was mainly due to a windless spring.” Normally, the lake storms and blows in the spring, mixing the ocean water. This seemed less the case last spring, keeping the upper layer of the ocean warm. Just like in a windless lake where the upper layer is much warmer than the deeper part.
At the moment it is still very warm in the Mediterranean, among others. The reason is not yet clear, says Van Sebille. “These kinds of questions can only really be solved properly if more measurement data comes in.”
4. Extremely little sea ice accretion around Antarctica
Never before has there been so little sea ice around Antarctica at this time of year as it is now. It is winter there now, normally the sea ice expands quickly. This year, that growth lags far behind. According to KNMI’s Siegmund, this is not directly due to climate change, but to the vagaries of the weather. “Due to shifting low-pressure areas, a relatively large amount of warm air is now arriving.”
The little sea ice can have consequences, even for the Netherlands. Sea ice that melts does not itself affect sea levels. “But the sea ice is like a belt around Antarctica, preventing melting land ice from sliding into the sea.” Because of this protective band, the melting sea ice indirectly causes additional sea level rise. “We suffer from that.”
When you look at expectations regarding sea level rise, Antarctica is a big source of uncertainty. “Sea levels might rise by one metre, or several metres, by the end of the next century. That depends, among other things, on the melting land ice, which in turn strongly depends on how much greenhouse gases people continue to emit.”
Read also:
‘El Niño might push global temperatures to record highs’
El Niño has officially arrived: a period in which the Pacific Ocean warms up considerably. That has a major impact, explains oceanographer Femke de Jong. “We can get an extreme preview of the weather of the future.”
Weatherman who covered climate change resigns following death threat
Meteorologists and weather forecasters warn television viewers regarding climate change. American Chris Gloninger received so much hate that he quit his job. Dutch colleagues recognize these kinds of threats.
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