Scientists predict that there is a 50% chance that 2023 will be the warmest year on record. At the same time, 2024 may turn out to be even hotter, reports “MIR 24” with reference to AFP.
The source quotes National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Chief Scientist Sarah Kapnick as saying: “There is almost a 99% chance that 2023 will be one of the five warmest years on record, and almost 50% likely to be the warmest year on record. warmest in history”.
In turn, the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Gavin Schmidt, believes that the reason lies in the El Niño climate phenomenon. These are fluctuations in the temperature of surface waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. El Niño has a global impact on the climate, bringing warming temperatures as well as extreme natural disasters.
Schmidt predicts that the impact of El Niño will peak in 2024. Therefore, many temperature records set in 2023 could be broken.
July 2023 has already been recognized as the hottest in 174 years. The average surface temperature was 1,12 degrees Celsius above average. The temperature of the oceans also reached a record high level, the source notes.