Neville Nicholls of Melbourne’s Monash University told an online climate science media briefing that initial satellite data indicate “January was the hottest we’ve ever seen.”
He also told the briefing that last November was similarly the hottest on record, while November-January was the hottest three months for that time of year “the world has seen.”
In early February, the worst heat wave in 50 years across southern Brazil and Paraguay killed more than 60 people and turned Rio’s pre-Carnival environment into a blast furnace.
As for the ongoing northern chill, Britain’s Met Office announced that while this is one of the coldest winters in 30 years, such deep freezes could become increasingly rare because of the overall warming trend.
“Global warming is a trend superimposed upon natural variability, variability that still exists despite global warming,” said Kevin Walsh, associate professor of meteorology at the University of Melbourne.