APPENDIX A: RECORD BREAKING WEATHER EXTREMES IN 2023/EARLY 2024
First, a word of caution is need here. Many of these extremes will have been strongly influenced by the current El Nino, just as was the case with the previous hottest year ever in 2016. The shift from the much cooler conditions of a 3-year La Nina started in late 2022, and scientists predict that this current El Nino will weaken from the middle of the year.
Global temperatures breached 1.5°C for a record 12-month period (at 1.52°C).
February 2024 was the hottest month in human history – a full 1.77°C above pre-industrial temperatures..
Worst ever wildfires in Canada, Hawaii, Europe.
Record temperatures in Arizona and Southwest USA, France, Germany, Poland, Australia and so on.
Heatwaves in the middle of winter in Chile and Argentina.
Highest rainfall levels (and consequential flooding) in many countries.
Levels of sea ice in Antarctica at a new low in both the summer and the winter.
Global average ocean surface temperatures “off the charts” – as warm in February 2024 as would typically be the case in mid-July.
A record number of billion-dollar climate-induced disasters in the USA in 2023.
Hottest May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December 2023, and now January and February 2024. 140 countries broke February heat records.
Some reflections on all this from leading scientists:
‘Insane”, “climatic history rewritten”, “absolutely gobsmackingly bananas” etc etc.
As Professor Katherine Hayhoe has pointed out, “our previous projections underestimated these extremes”.
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