From June 2023 to August 2024, the world saw 15 months in a row of record-breaking heat, a stretch so extreme that it confounded scientists. A new animation from NASA shows the severity of warming.
“Warming in 2023 was head-and-shoulders above any other year, and 2024 will be as well,†said Gavin Schmidt, chief climate scientist at NASA. “I wish I knew why, but I donâ€t.â€
The heat seen over the last two years surpassed the predictions of scientists, with some months measuring up to 0.5 degrees C warmer than the previous record high. In a recent interview with Yale E360, Schmidt said 2023 “was a record warm year, and it was a record-breaking size of the record.â€
It’s unclear what may be driving the apparent spike in warming. Possible factors include a drop in sunlight-blocking pollution, changes to cloud cover, and an underwater volcanic eruption that filled the sky with heat-trapping water vapor. But none of these factors, or even a combination, can fully explain the unusual heat, raising the possibility that the climate is less predictable than previously thought.
Schmidt told e360, “Things are behaving in a more erratic way than we expected, and that means the future predictions may also be more off.â€
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