The surface of the oceans experienced the warmest May on record, the European organization Copernicus said.

“Ocean surface temperatures reach already at record heights and our data show that the average temperature of all ice-free seas in May 2023 was higher than in any other May,” said Samantha Burgess, European Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Deputy Director.

The announcement is based on computer analysis of many measurements taken from satellites, ships, aircraft or weather stations around the world. The data used by the Copernicus service dates back to 1950.

Maybe #temperature highlights from #C3S.

last month:

🌡 was the joint 2nd warmest May in the world?
🌡 was the average temperature close to normal in most of Europe?
🌡 It was exceptionally warm over the oceans.

For more information 👉https://t.co/sTXUztZQIq pic.twitter.com/HTMLwVffK7

— ECMWF Copernicus (@CopernicusECMWF) June 7, 2023

In terms of global temperatures, May was the second warmest on record.

May 2023 was second warmest in the worldat the same time, we are monitoring the El Niño phenomenon that continues to develop in the tropical Pacific,” explains Samantha Burgess.

El Niño is a natural climatic phenomenon associated with rising temperatures, increased drought in some regions of the globe and heavy rainfall in others.

It last developed in 2018-2019 and was replaced by a La Niña episode that lasted almost three years and caused the opposite effects and mainly a drop in temperatures.

In early May, the World Meteorological Organization estimated that there was a 60 percent chance of El Niño developing between now and the end of July, and an 80 percent chance between today and the end of September.

This spring was the warmest in Spain

Weather source set from March 1 to May 31She was warmer which was recorded in Spain since the start of the country’s climate statistics, the National Weather Service (Aemet) announced today.

The season, marked by exceptional heat in late April, was also the driest on record, Aemet said in the report.

The spring of 2023 was the warmest and second driest of Spain’s historical series, which began in 1961. pic.twitter.com/CGQfAnBkmf

— AEMET (@AEMET_Esp) June 7, 2023

During those three months, the average temperature in Spain was 14.2°, 1.8° above normal for spring and 0.3° above the previous warmest spring record in 1997.

Masses of warm and dry air that came from North Africa at the end of April caused a record temperature rise in southern Spain to 38.8 °, the temperature corresponding to the month of July.

“Extreme heat would be nearly impossible without climate change“, showed a scientific study published in early May by World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of scientists who evaluate the relationship between extreme weather events and climate deregulation.

On the contrary, May was characterized by temperatures on average lower than usual for this season, according to Aemet.

Episodes of extreme heat have increased in recent years in Spain, which is at the forefront of European countries threatened by climate change. According to the UN, 75% of its territory is under the threat of desertification.

With extremely high temperatures and devastating fires, 2022 was the hottest year ever recorded in Spain, according to Aemet.

Source: APE-AFP.