The extraordinary surge in heat that has sent the planet’s climate deeper into uncharted territory has scientists puzzled, as over the past two years, temperature records have been repeatedly shattered by a streak that has tested the best available scientific predictions on how the climate functions.
While scientists are unanimous that burning fossil fuels has largely driven long term global warming, and that natural climate variability can also influence temperatures from one year to the next, they are still debating what might have contributed to the particularly exceptional heat surge in recent years.
Experts think changes in cloud patterns, airborne pollution, and the Earth’s ability to store carbon could be factors, but it would take another year or two for a clearer picture to emerge.
“Warming in 2023 was head and shoulders above any other year, and 2024 will be as well,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
As fossil fuel emissions have risen to record highs in 2023, average sea surface and air temperatures have curved upwards in a consistent, decades-long warming trend. But in an unprecedented streak between June 2023 and September 2024, global temperatures were unlike anything seen before, said the World Meteorological Organization.
The heat was so extreme it was enough to make both years the hottest years in history.
Scientists are still looking for clues and have different theories. However, there are concerns that without a more complete picture, scientists could be missing even more profound and transformational shifts in the climate.
As scientists try to figure out what will happen next, we have prepare ourselves based on our experiences with what has already happened, along with their already grim predictions for our planet that is warming while we don’t do enough to slow it down.
Even as we try to mitigate the impacts of a warming planet by reducing the harmful emissions that human activity generates, the resiliency of our communities will be key, along with disaster reduction and response programs that should be adjusted to deal with harsher and more extreme conditions that we are expected to encounter in the coming years.*
