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World Meteorological Organization Sounds Alarm Over Global Sea Temperatures

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Global sea surface temperatures reached a record high in May, June, and July – and the warming El Niño weather pattern is only just getting started – experts at the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday.

Alarm bells have been rung at the UN agency in particular because of an “unprecedented peak” in sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic.

“The first week of July…could be considered as the warmest period or the warmest week ever recorded”, with a global average temperature close to 17.24 degrees Celsius on 7 July, said Omar Baddour, Chief of Climate Monitoring at WMO.

Unprecedented is new normal

The WMO expert added that daily June temperatures in the North Atlantic had been “dramatically high” compared to usual readings, while Antarctic sea ice levels reached their lowest extent for June since satellite observations began.

At a shocking 17 per cent below average, this year’s readings broke the June 2022 record by a substantial margin and represented “a really dramatic drop in the sea ice extent in the Antarctica” – some 2.6 million square kilometers of lost sea ice.

Michael Sparrow, Chief of WMO’s World Climate Research Programme, highlighted that “it really is completely unprecedented” seeing this kind of reduction in sea ice around the Antarctic.

“The Antarctic region is normally thought of being relatively stable; it is much colder than the Arctic. We’re used to seeing these big reductions in the sea ice in the Arctic, but not in the Antarctic.”

A marine heatwave

Beyond Antarctica, the UN agency warned that the “marine heatwave” would also impact fisheries distribution and ocean ecosystems, with knock-on effects on the climate.
It is not only the surface temperature of the water, but the whole ocean is becoming warmer and absorbing energy that will remain there for hundreds of years, explained WMO.

“When you have a tropical cyclone, everything is affected in the shores, including fisheries, but also including inland,” said Mr. Baddour. “With heavy precipitation that could lead to casualties, displacement of populations, and so on. So, if we say that it is a dramatic change, that also means a dramatic likelihood of extreme weather and climate events.”

El Niño effect

Just last week, WMO announced the onset of El Niño, characterized by a warming of the Pacific Ocean. Combined with the human-induced greenhouse gas effect, the weather pattern is expected to make one of the next five years the warmest on record.

The WMO officials told journalists in Geneva that “we are in uncharted territory, and we can expect more records to fall as El Niño develops further”, with impacts extending into 2024.

“During an El Niño year, you get higher temperatures in the atmosphere as well because heat is moving from the oceans to the atmosphere,” said Mr. Sparrow.

“We are actually at the beginning of that process, so El Niño hasn’t had as much of an effect as it is going to later in the year. So, we’re seeing these high temperatures in the North Atlantic…despite the fact that El Niño hasn’t really got going yet.”

According to the WMO’s Mr. Baddour, the warmest year is expected to be post-2023, when El Niño is expected to pick up. A record year in 2024 is likely, if the strength of El Niño continues to develop in line with forecasts.

SOURCE: UN News

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4 COMMENTS

  1. For those wondering how far these broken records go: breaking every record since satellite measurements began in the 1980s.

    Yes people. Less than 40 years. There are many people older than these records who would tell you it was so much hotter in the 1970s. The strongest “recorded” hurricanes are in the 70s. You need to stop peddling this climate emergency BS. Another con to tax and control the populace.

  2. Climate change emergency – another hoax. The world has always gone through changes and will continue to do so irrespective of what man does or does not do.

    Remember the ice age? Remember the period of the dinosaurs? And history will record many many more of those changes.

    The record shows that the temperatures 40 to 50 years ago were much hotter than that of today so what’s the alarm. Small states like ours should therefore spend zero dollars on that hoax and focus of feeding their populations instead. Allow the globalist billionaires pushing that theory to do the spending instead.

  3. “ 42°C IN ROME IN JULY 1841:
    BEFORE CARS & PLANES:
    UNRELATED TO CO2:
    The maximum official temperature ever recorded by any weather station in Rome Italy, was 42°C on the 27th July 1841. A cursory internet search shows temperature reaching 40°C every other Summer. Therefore another 42°C is certainly not unprecedented, and since the last was in 1841 it does not equate with any gradual increase in the last few years. It would instead indicate the peak of warming was reached there in 1841. Long before everyone drove cars or flew in airplanes. How does this fit into the scaremongering? It does not”

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