2023 is on track to be the hottest year on record: after having already broken several records, such as the hottest summer since 1880, with 0.23 degrees higher than all previous summer seasons, and a freezing point never so high in the Alps, which rose to an altitude of 5,328 metres, the data relating to the surface temperature of the air above seas and emerged lands indicate that the second half of the year will not be any different. This is stated by a study by the Chinese Sun Yat-sen University published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, which underlines the urgency of taking countermeasures regarding the climate crisis. How necessary the measures are is also indicated by a record figure for 2022, when the Tyrolean glaciers lost all the ice accumulated during the winter already at the end of June, never so early. At this rate, the glaciers will be halved in 10-20 years, as confirmed by a study by the Austrian University of Innsbruck published in the journal The Cryosphere.
The extraordinarily high temperature data for 2023, used in the study led by Zichen Li, comes from China’s Global Surface Temperature Database (Cmst 2.0), which integrates more than a century of data on land surface air temperatures from around the world and also incorporates cutting-edge research. A valuable tool, freely accessible for both the scientific community and the public, which in 2022 was also expanded to include data on Arctic surface temperatures, improving its global coverage.
The results show that the current year has already earned third place for the warmest first half since measurements began, placing it just behind 2016, still in first place, and 2020. Global average surface temperatures of sea rose to an all-time high in April, followed closely by those relating to the air near the ground, which in June reached the second highest values ever recorded. This combination has led to May being crowned the warmest month ever measured by global average surface temperatures. But the research also reveals that values are continuing to rise in the second half of the year, which therefore has a good chance of becoming the warmest ever, and that the trend could continue into 2024.
No good news for the glaciers, therefore, especially those of the Alps, which this summer broke the freezing record twice in two months: the altitude at which the temperature is zero degrees rose first to 5,184 meters and then at 5,328 meters. The Tyrolean glaciers are in particular difficulty, such as the Austrian Hintereisferner: its black year, for now, has been 2022, when it broke the melting record. According to research led by Annelies Voordendag, in fact, it entered a negative balance already at the beginning of summer, on 23 June: almost two months earlier than the previous two years and also earlier than particularly hot years, such as 2003 and 2018, in which the point at which winter ice was lost was not reached until the end of July.
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I am a journalist with over 6 years of experience working in the news industry. I currently work as an author for Global Happenings, and my coverage focuses on Technology news. I have written for various publications, including Reuters, The New York Times and The Guardian.
