Florida - Monday August 14, 2023: On the heels of the warmest July on record, NASA Monday held a news conference to discuss its latest climate data compiled from the satellite data which shows ocean warming.
"Our data indicates that July 2023 was the warmest July on the globe, and it was the warmest by a long shot," said NOAA Chief Scientist Dr. Sarah Kapnick. July 2023 was warmer than any other month on record by more than a third-of-a-degree Fahrenheit she said. “That may not sound like a lot but the margin for most global records is on the order of a-hundredth of a degree or two. So, last month was way, way warmer than anything we’ve ever seen.”
Part of the reason was the budding El Nino weather pattern that has developed this year, which tends to contribute to warming. But NASA Space Studies Director Dr. Gavin Schmidt says the EL Nino has not fully formed yet. “The biggest impact of El Nino will actually occur in 2024," said Dr. Schmidt. "So we’re anticipating not only is 2023 going to be exceptionally warm, but we anticipate that 2024 will be warmer still.”
However, the main driver of these record temperatures he said is not El Nino or other natural events. “It’s driven mostly by greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide the first, methane second, and the third chlorofluorocarbons. And so, without those human contributions to the drivers of plant change we would not be seeing anything like the temperatures that we’re seeing right now.”
The satellite data said NASA Director Bill Nelson, is a wakeup call. “Folks mother nature is sending us a message and that message it’s we better act now before its too late to save our planet.”
