Disaster has arrived; Scientists in shock; All is devastated; 50 degrees in Belgrade?

This, they say, continued a 10-month streak in which each consecutive month set a new temperature record, while the sea surface temperature also reached a new absolute monthly record for global sea temperature.

Each of the last ten months ranked as the hottest ever recorded globally in comparison to the corresponding month in previous years, according to the Copernicus Monthly Bulletin.

So, it was not only the 10th consecutive month that broke its own heat record, but also "the global average temperature over the past 12 months is the highest ever recorded" and exceeds the pre-industrial average by 1.58 degrees Celsius due to decades of greenhouse gas emissions, which performance from mid-2023 particularly highlighted by the El Niño phenomenon, said Samantha Burgess, deputy head of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

"It's a long-term trend with clear records that we're very concerned about," she said, adding that monitoring and "studying these kinds of records month after month really shows us that our climate is changing very quickly."

The Copernicus data set goes back to 1940, and scientists compared it with other relevant data to confirm that last month was the warmest March since the pre-industrial era.

2023 was already the hottest year on the planet according to world records that have existed since 1850.

Wasteland

Extreme weather conditions and high temperatures have wreaked havoc globally this year. A climate-change-induced drought in the Amazon rainforest between January and March fueled a record number of wildfires in Venezuela, while a drought in southern Africa destroyed crops and left millions facing starvation..

Record warming of the sea surface

Burgess pointed out that the data on the seas and oceans are "no less shocking", because the new global ocean surface temperature record set in February was exceeded again in March.

Oceans cover 70 percent of the planet and keep the Earth's surface habitable, absorbing 90 percent of the excess heat produced by carbon dioxide pollution resulting from human activity since the dawn of the industrial age.

Scientists warned last month that warming oceans in the Southern Hemisphere will cause massive coral bleaching and could be the most dangerous in the history of the planet.

Warmer oceans mean more moisture in the atmosphere, and scientists say the air can hold about seven percent more water vapor for every degree Celsius of temperature rise.

This results in increasingly erratic weather, such as fierce winds and heavy rains.

"We know that the period we're living in right now is likely to be the warmest in 100,000 years," Burgess said.

50 degrees Celsius in Belgrade?

Recent research by scientists from Serbia shows that some parts of Belgrade are up to seven degrees warmer than some others in the summer months, and research done in recent years shows a constant trend of increasing average and maximum temperatures in the capital.

As "Blic" previously wrote, long-term forecasts say that a hellish summer is ahead of us, which will be marked by official temperatures of up to 40 degrees.

Even half of the summer will be marked by tropical days.

Meteorologist Ana Vuković Vimić also emphasizes that the problem is that night temperatures do not drop due to "constant radiation of heat from buildings and asphalt".

"So not only does it heat up more, because it absorbs more solar radiation and retains heat better, but it also emits it at night, so that heat is somehow trapped in the urban environment. So, as far as health is concerned, it is very dangerous, especially because of climate change because estimates, temperature rise and the effect of the urban heat island in the middle of the century will cause the appearance of such high temperatures in our country that will be like deadly heat waves".

It also depends on the air humidity, says the interlocutor, stating that in the center of urban heat islands the temperature can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius.

"It's all possible with us and it will be a very big problem. Since then, it is considered that even a healthy body is at high risk of heat stroke, muscle cramps simply occur, and fainting can occur," says the meteorologist.