Millions swelter as world breaks average temperature record for early June

PARIS — Worldwide temperatures briefly exceeded a key warming threshold earlier this month, a hint of heat and its harms to come, said scientists expressing worry over the situation.

The mercury has since dipped again, but experts said the short surge marked a new global heat record for June and indicates more extremes ahead as the planet enters an El Nino phase that could last years.

Researchers at the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Thursday that the start of June saw global surface air temperatures rise 1.5 C above preindustrial levels for the first time. That is the threshold governments said they would try to stay within at a 2015 summit in Paris.

"Just because we've temporarily gone over 1.5 C doesn't mean we've breached the Paris Agreement limit," Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus program, said. For that to happen, the globe needs to exceed that threshold for a much longer time period, such as a couple of decades instead of a couple of weeks.

Still, the 11 days spent at the 1.5 C threshold shows how important it is for scientists to keep a close watch on the planet's health, not least because previous spikes above 1.5 C have all happened during winter or spring in the northern hemisphere.

"It's really critical to monitor the situation, to understand what implications this has for the summer to come," she said.

"The expectation is that 2024 will be even warmer than 2023 as this El Nino continues to develop."

That is because a three-year La Nina phase — which tends to dampen the effects of global warming — has given way to the opposite, an El Nino period, which could add another 0.5 C or more to average temperatures.

"As a climate scientist, I feel like I am watching a global train wreck in slow motion. It's quite frustrating," said the University of Victoria's Andrew Weaver, who was not part of the measurements.

In Mexico, authorities urged people across the country to take safety precautions on Thursday as an unusual late spring heat wave sent temperatures soaring, with cooler days possibly weeks away.

Health Ministry data through June 9 showed that at least six people have died this year as a result of the higher-than-normal temperatures.

In Mexico City, children splashed around in public fountains and commuters shielded themselves from the sun with umbrellas. Past heat waves in the capital, where very few people have air conditioning, have tended to occur in April and May.

In the United States, from Texas to Florida, about 35 million people are bracing for a widespread heat wave which is expected to last for days, the National Weather Service forecast on Thursday.

Agencies - Xinhua