Image: (APA/AFP/Jorge Guerrero)
“Preliminary data shows the world just had its hottest week on record,” the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday. Record temperatures are being measured both on land and in the oceans, with “potentially devastating impacts on ecosystems and the environment.”
“Troubling News”
“We are in uncharted territory,” said WMO Director of Climate Services Christopher Hewitt. Further new records are expected as the El Niño weather phenomenon develops, with repercussions well into 2024. “This is worrying news for the planet.” The European earth observation program Copernicus told the AFP news agency that, according to its data, the past week was probably the hottest since records began in 1940.
Sad record series
It is the latest in a series of records this year. Climate change and the beginning of the El Niño phenomenon had already made the previous month the hottest June so far. El Niño occurs every two to seven years and can add to rising temperatures around the world as a result of climate change. The weather phenomenon is characterized by warming of the surface water in the Pacific Ocean.
Source: Nachrichten
