June 2020 ties as the warmest and one of the driest months on record.
It’s been more than a decade since the planet has had a cooler-than-average June overall and 2020 was no exception. Although the general public’s attention is consumed by fear over the global pandemic and protests against social injustices, the chronic condition of climate change continues to intensify.
Experts said these high temperatures are due to a combination of climate change and extreme climate variability. June 2020 tied Earth’s warmest June since records began over 141 years ago according to a recent analysis. Also, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies found that June 2020 global temperatures were 0.93 degrees Celsius above the 1951-1980 average, tying 2019 for the warmest June in their records dating to 1880.
June this year was the 13th consecutive month in the top two warmest respective months in NASA’s database, a streak that began in June 2019. In fact, it’s becoming more and more likely that 2020 will be the hottest year globally since record-keeping began. The data also indicate that four of the first six months of 2020 either tied or set new records for that month in NASA’s analysis. Of note, the average temperature for January-June was the eighth warmest in the 126-year record.
The data also indicates that it was not only hot but it was extremely dry across several countries across the globe. This was as a result of a combination of below-average rainfall and above-average temperature.
In general, global temperature records are more likely to be set during an El Nino events because of the extra heat the tropical Pacific Ocean produces in the atmosphere. However, currently, there is no El Nino to boost temperatures. There is no doubt that greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans are changing our climate, resulting in a progressive rise in global average temperatures.
According to the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), annual temperature outlook for 2020 has a more than 70 percent chance of being the warmest year on record. Data from the center also indicates that 2020 has a 99.94 percent chance of ranking among the five warmest years ever recorded.