Omens not boding well after 2023 record heat
With extreme weather and climate change-related natural disasters, 2023 was the warmest year ever recorded since meteorological data started being systematically recorded.
Although a documented forecast cannot be made, the likelihood that 2024 will be among the five to 10 warmest since the mid-19th century is heightened by the elevated temperatures in the first two months of the year, the “legacy” of 2023, and general trends as reflected in meteorological and climate models. After all, the past nine years have been the warmest on record globally.
“2023 has been identified as the year to remember for the density and magnitude of extreme weather events observed across the globe. These phenomena include the devastating Mediterranean cyclone Daniel, the fires in Canada and on Maui in Hawaii, as well as tropical cyclones, drought and fires in many regions, said Christos Zerefos, secretary general of the Academy of Athens and supervisor of the Academy’s Center for the Study of Atmospheric Physics and Climatology, in comments to Kathimerini.
Zerefos added that global warming continued to progress throughout 2023, raising temperatures in the oceans and seas.
“Especially in the northern hemisphere, there was a significant increase in sea surface temperatures, in many cases exceeding 3 degrees Celsius,” he noted, adding that after September, the El Nino phenomenon began developing in the ocean off Peru in the South Pacific Ocean.
“At the same time, large parts of both the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean continued to warm. Unfortunately, the seas have a great impact on the atmosphere and can cause major problems in enclosed seas, such as the Mediterranean region,” he said.
Moreover, Stavros Dafis of the National Observatory of Athens told Kathimerini that the 2023-2024 winter, from December 23 to February 24, was the warmest on record for Greece, citing preliminary data of the European Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), with northern Greece warming even more.
