The average global temperature has reached record-high levels recently, and there are estimates that Earth is now warmer than it was in hundreds of thousands of year.
It’s been scorching in Alaska as well, even after an icy start to the summer for the majority of the state.
National Weather Service climate researcher Brian Brettschneider, back for our Ask a Climatologist segment states that around one quarter of Alaska was the warmest in July in history.
The state hasn’t been hit by more extreme temperatures similar to the 90-plus degrees that have been reported in areas in South America, where it’s supposed to be in the middle of winter at the moment, Brettschneider says Alaska could quickly find itself back in the midst of what he calls “the the bullseye.”
Listen:
The transcript below has been lightly edited to improve clarity.
Brian Brettschneider We’ve observed this before. In 2016, in the year of 2016 was the warmest year ever recorded. Also, Alaska was definitely right in the middle of the record-breaking year. We actually broke records for most warm year. In that year around 10% or 15% of Earth was the most record-breaking year. Therefore, when we say “Globally this is the warmest month of the year or most humid year” this is an overall average. It’s possible to vary depending on the location. Thus, in 2023, the world broke records by a large margin the most warm July ever recorded and was the hottest month ever recorded.
Casey Grove: I believe I read that it was estimated to be the hottest of the past 120,000 or something similar. Does that make sense?
Brian Brettschneider: Okay, that’s slightly speculation. We do have a good record of temperatures from the ice core as well as proxy records that go back many thousands of years. It’s also a fair chance that this year could be the warmest we’ve seen ever over the past few hundreds of thousands of years. Certain, the last few thousand years. And again possibly tens or several hundred thousand years.
Casey Grove WOW. Yeah. It’s like these time scales that baffle the mind. It’s too vast for humans to understand. However, the one thing we can put our minds around is that it seemed like we got a pretty good beginning to season here in Alaska the majority of Alaska was cool, but the weather changed with time. Could describe this, and also what’s going on now this time in summer?
Brian Brettschneider I’m living in Anchorage I’ve heard lots of stories about how awesome it’s been this season. In Anchorage itself, and in Anchorage itself it’s been the most cool start to the summer in over 11 years. It’s not really cool historically however, it is cool in comparison to the last 10 years or more. In the current state of July, it seems to be the sixth-warmest ever recorded statewide. Therefore, this idea that Alaska has experienced a cold summer is far from the truth. All across the state, it was a very hot July. Also, some places were between Fairbanks eastward, and Fairbanks northward, several established records. Fairbanks was second in the warmest July. Northway was their warmest July by a large margin. Eagle I believe, was the warmest or second highest July. On the North Slope, Utqiagvik had the warmest month ever recorded. On the other day, they recorded an average temperature of 66degrees, which was their highest temperature on record. It’s my belief that 6 of 20 days with the highest temperatures recorded in Utqiagvik were recorded in the past month. In fact, over the last 30 days it’s the first time that they’ve ever seen a 30 day average temperature that was above 50 degrees. It’s truly remarkable, and in certain instances, unimaginable warmth within northern Alaska.
Casey Grove: Yeah, I’m talking about we’ve been discussing the possibility of that an El Nino pattern that is forming. Are the high temperatures we’re experiencing, the result caused by some kind of El Nino or, you know, another event?
Brian Brettschneider The current situation is moderately powerful El Nino within the middle of Pacific Ocean, and that allows some warmth into the air that was kept in a sort of secluded area during the last few La Nina years. However, what we’re seeing is all over the place. We’re seeing, particularly those in north Atlantic Ocean, much warmer than the normal sea surface temperatures. This is at the equator or to the south all the way to British Isles, you know about 50 degrees North. It’s totally disconnected from Pacific Ocean. Thus, El Nino is liberating some warm air, and it’s certainly likely to be a factor in the warming, and even a major contributor to the record-breaking temperatures that we experienced this month however, it’s not the whole picture, and it’s likely to be just a small aspect of the picture.
