- Tunisia's President Saied set for landslide election win
- Barca hoping to return to Camp Nou 'by end of year'
- Trump to open second golf course at Scotland resort in summer 2025
- Super-sub Jhon Duran rewarded with new Aston Villa deal
- US duo win Nobel for gene regulation breakthrough
- Masood hits first ton for four years to power Pakistan to 233-1
- Fritz wins delayed match to reach Shanghai Masters third round
- Naomi Osaka pulls out of Japan Open with back injury
- Weather may delay launch of mission to study deflected asteroid
- China to flesh out economic stimulus plans after bumper rally
- Artist Marina Abramovic hopes first China show offers tech respite
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on US jobs data
- Pakistan 122-1 at lunch in first England Test
- Kazakhs approve plan for first nuclear power plant
- World marks anniversary of Oct. 7 attack on Israel
- 'Second family': tennis stars hunt winning formula with new coaches
- Philippines, South Korea agree to deepen maritime cooperation
- Mexico mayor murdered days after taking office
- Sardinia's sheep farmers battle bluetongue as climate warms
- Japan govt admits doctoring 'untidy' cabinet photo
- Israel marks first anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack
- Darvish tames Ohtani as Padres thrash Dodgers
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on jobs data
- Family affair as LeBron, Bronny James make Lakers bow
- Cancer, cardiovascular drugs tipped for Nobel as prize week opens
- As Great Salt Lake dries, Utah Republicans pardon Trump climate skepticism
- Amazon activist warns of 'critical situation' ahead of UN forum
- Mourners pay tribute to latest victims of deadly Channel crossing
- Tunisia incumbent Saied set to win presidential vote: exit polls
- Phillies win thriller to level Mets series
- Yu bags first PGA Tour win with playoff win
- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- AC Milan fall at Fiorentina after De Gea's penalty heroics
- Lewandowski treble for leaders Barca as Atletico held
- Fresh Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Sucic stunner earns Real Sociedad draw against Atletico
- PSG draw with Nice, fail to reclaim top spot in Ligue 1
- Gudmundsson downs AC Milan after De Gea's penalty heroics for Fiorentina
- 'Yes' vote prevails in Kazakhstan nuclear plant vote: TV
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Lewandowski hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- India maintain Pakistan stranglehold as Windies cruise at Women's T20 World Cup
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
UN says July to be hottest month ever recorded
UN and EU monitors said Thursday that July is set to be the hottest month in recorded history and likely "unprecedented" for thousands of years, warning that this was a taste of the world's climate future.
Searing heat intensified by global warming has baked parts of Europe, Asia and North America this month, combining with wildfires that have scorched across Canada and parts of southern Europe.
"The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived," UN chief Antonio Guterres told reporters in New York.
With the first three weeks of July already registering global average temperatures above any comparative period, the World Meteorological Organization and Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said it is "extremely likely" that July 2023 will be the hottest month on records going back to the 1940s.
Carlo Buontempo, Director of C3S, said the temperatures in the period had been "remarkable", with an anomaly so large that scientists are confident the record has been shattered even before the month ends.
Beyond these official records, he said proxy data for the climate going back further -- like tree rings, or ice cores -- suggests the temperatures seen in the period could be "unprecedented in our history in the last few thousand years".
Possibly even longer "on the order of 100,000 years" he said.
About 1.2 degrees Celsius of global warming since the late 1800s, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, has made heatwaves hotter, longer and more frequent, as well as intensifying other weather extremes like storms and floods.
- 'Foretaste' -
The WMO has said the eight years to 2022 were the warmest on record, despite the cooling effects of the La Nina weather pattern. That has now given way to the warming El Nino, although this is not expected to strengthen until later in the year.
"The extreme weather which has affected many millions of people in July is unfortunately the harsh reality of climate change and a foretaste of the future," said World Meteorological Organization's Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
The WMO predicts it is more likely than not that global temperatures will temporarily rise 1.5C above the pre-industrial benchmark for at least one of the next five years.
They stress, however, that this would not mark a permanent breach of the 1.5C limit set out in the Paris Agreement, which refers to long-term warming.
Buontempo said there had never been a month where so many days had exceeded 1.5C.
- Hot water -
Temperature records have tumbled across the northern hemisphere this month, with many regions sweltering through weeks of unrelenting heat.
With large swathes of the United States baking under a record-breaking heatwave, President Joe Biden held a White House conference with mayors of cities like Phoenix, Arizona -- currently enduring a brutal 27-day streak of days above 43 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit) -- to discuss the impact of the extreme temperatures.
He also announced measures to bolster heat-related safety rules for workers – especially farmers, construction workers and others labouring outdoors.
In Beijing, the government urged the elderly to stay indoors and children to shorten outdoor playtime to reduce exposure to the heat and ground-level ozone pollution.
Across the Mediterranean region, extreme heat has left landscapes tinder dry.
In Greece, hundreds of firefighters are struggling to contain deadly wildfires raging for two weeks in multiple parts of the country.
Copernicus and WMO said global average sea surface temperatures, which have well above those previously registered for the time of year since May, have contributed to the exceptionally warm July.
Buontempo said "a significant swathe" of the central Mediterranean is now close to or above all previous records.
The previous hottest month was July 2019, according to Copernicus, which will publish finalised data in early August.
This week scientists from the World Weather Attribution group found that the heatwaves in parts of Europe and North America would have been almost "impossible" without climate change.
Temperatures in China were made 50 times more likely by global warming, they found.
O.Norris--AMWN