Extreme global weather prompts fears about the hot summer to come for Australia

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The intense heat sweeping much of the northern hemisphere has prompted fears about the summer to come in Australia after the leading climate change authority confirmed July was the world’s hottest month ever, with ocean and air temperature records shattered across the globe.

In Iran’s Persian Gulf, the heat index – a measure that combines temperature and humidity to reflect the heat impact on a person – hit 70 degrees on Tuesday. While there is no official record for the heat index, one of the highest observations was above 80 degrees recorded in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, on July 8, 2003.

July was the hottest month ever, and experts worry it points to a fundamental shift in our climate.Credit: Dylan Coker

In hot environments, your sweat evaporates to help cool down. But if it’s too hot and your sweat can’t evaporate, you’re at a high risk of developing health complications, including heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

For cities, how to best manage heat is becoming a problem, with many exploring creative ways to mitigate it. This includes painting roofs white to deflect the heat, or increasing the number of heat refuges.

July saw heat records tumble across the world, with the global daily average temperature broken three times in the month. Extreme weather events, including fires, floods, storms and marine heatwaves swept across the globe, impacting millions.

July was 0.72 degrees warmer than the 1991-2020 average for the month, and 0.33 degrees warmer than the previous warmest month, July 2019.

Leading climate change authority, the Copernicus Climate Change Service, confirmed overnight that July was the hottest month on record.

Deputy director of the agency, Samantha Burgess, said the records could have dire consequences for communities and the planet, particularly as extreme events are likely to become more frequent and intense in the future.

“2023 is currently the third warmest year to date at 0.43 degrees above the recent average, with the average global temperature in July at 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels,” she said. “Even if this is only temporary, it shows the urgency for ambitious efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, which are the main driver behind these records.”

Professor Lesley Hughes, councillor of the Climate Council, said not only had July been marked by record global heat, but fires, floods, storms and low Antarctic sea ice pointed to a fundamental shift in climatic conditions.

“If one of these records were a one-off spike, we’d think it’s just climate is variable, but there is so much going on that it points to a really whole scale change in how earth systems are operating and that is concerning,” she said.

Hughes added that the only way to limit the impacts of climate change was to address the root cause: the burning of fossil fuels.

“We’ve been warned about all of these things that are coming to pass for decades and decades, but governments, including the Australian government, continue to develop fossil fuels. It’s like the human race has been diagnosed with a terminal disease and knows there is a cure, but at the same time, it is deciding not to save itself,” Hughes said.

“The question is, at what point does the climate emergency get to before climate action is taken? I think we are at an emergency point and have been for some time, but drastic action is not happening.”

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