「史上最も暑い６月」 世界平均気温１３か月連続で更新 ＥＵ機関

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】欧州連合（ＥＵ）の気候監視ネットワーク、コペルニクス気候変動サービス（Ｃ３Ｓ）は８日、先月が観測史上最も暑い６月になったとし、２０２３年６月以降、月ごとの世界平均気温は１３か月連続で過去最高を更新したと発表した。（写真は、イタリア・ローマで、外気温４１度を示す薬局の看板）
　エルニーニョ現象は世界的な気温上昇につながることが多い。Ｃ３Ｓの上席研究員、ジュリアン・ニコラス氏は、月別の最高気温の連続更新とエルニーニョ現象の発生が重なっていると説明した上で、「最高気温が更新されている要因の一つではあるが、それだけではない」と話した。
　大西洋、北太平洋、インド洋の海面水温の記録更新も、世界中の気温上昇に影響している。
　世界の平均海面水温も、１５か月連続で最高記録を更新した。
　一方で、太平洋赤道域の海面水温が平年より低い状態となるラニーニャ現象が近々発生する可能性が高く、ニコラス氏は「今後数か月で、世界中の気温の高さは緩和される見通し」だと指摘した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/07/08-18:27）

Last month was the hottest June on record across the globe, the EU's climate monitor said Monday, capping half a year of wild and destructive weather from floods to heatwaves.
Every month since June 2023 has eclipsed its own temperature record in a 13-month streak of unprecedented global heat, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said.
This is more than a statistical oddity and it highlights a large and continuing shift in our climate, said the service director, Carlo Buontempo.
Even if this specific streak of extremes ends at some point, we are bound to see new records being broken as the climate continues to warm.
This was inevitable as long as humanity kept adding heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, he said.
The global average temperature notched last month broke the previous June record set in 2023.
The fresh high came at the midway point of a year marked by climate extremes.
Scorching heat has blanketed swathes of the world from India to Saudi Arabia, the United States and Mexico in the first half of this year.
Relentless rain, a phenomena scientists have also linked to a warmer planet, caused extensive flooding in Kenya, China, Brazil, Afghanistan, Russia and France.
Wildfires have torched land in Greece and Canada and last week, Hurricane Beryl became the earliest category five Atlantic hurricane on record as it barrelled across several Caribbean islands.
- Warmer oceans -
The streak of record-breaking temperatures coincided with El Nino, a natural phenomenon that contributes to hotter weather globally, said Julien Nicolas, a senior scientist at C3S.
That was part of the factors behind the temperature records, but it was not the only one, he told AFP.
Ocean temperatures have also been hitting new highs.
Record sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic, the Northern Pacific and Indian Ocean also contributed to the soaring heat across the globe.
Sea surface temperatures hit a separate milestone in June -- 15 straight months of new highs, an occurrence Nicolas described as striking.
The oceans cover 70 percent of the Earth's surface and absorb 90 percent of the extra heat associated with rising climate-warming emissions.
What happens to the ocean surface has an important impact on the air temperature above the surface and global average temperature as well, he said.
However, the world is about to transition into a La Nina phase, which has a cooling effect.
We can expect the global (air) temperature to taper down in the next few months, said Nicolas.
If these record (sea surface) temperatures persist, even as La Nina conditions develop that might lead to 2024 being warmer than 2023. But it's too early to tell, he added.
Global air temperatures in the 12 months to June 2024 were the highest in the data record -- on average 1.64C above pre-industrial levels, Copernicus said.
This doesn't mean the 1.5C warming limit agreed by 196 countries in Paris in 2015 has been breached, because that goal is measured in decades, not individual years.
But last month, Copernicus said there was an 80 percent chance that Earth's annual average temperatures would at least temporarily exceed the 1.5C mark during the next five years.