July 2023 sees multiple global temperature records broken

submitted by Death_By_Democracy from climate.copernicus.eu

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[–]GuyWhite 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

What I don’t understand: Isn't the southern hemisphere in winter now? Why do “global average temperatures” peak in July and August if the graph runs January through December?

[–]Death_By_Democracy[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Why do “global average temperatures” peak in July and August

This might be the reason - most of the land is in the northern hemisphere and temperature measurements are maybe taken where there is land? Also temperatures over land tend to be higher than temperatures over water. I guess if the land was evenly divided between the two halves, the peak would either not exist, or it would be much reduced.

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-hemisphere-has-the-largest-area-covered-by-land.html

[–]ActuallyNot 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This might be the reason - most of the land is in the northern hemisphere and temperature measurements are maybe taken where there is land?

Close.

The global temperature record estimates the temperature on each grid, and then averages them, so it's not biased by the number of measurements taken.

But the land changes temperature more. So that is the reason why the northern hemisphere dominates.

Since the seasonal cycle over land is much larger than over the ocean (smaller heat capacity, and less evaporation), that means that the seasonal variations in the north outweigh the variations in the south.

[–]twolanterns 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

temps at city stations - cities covered with more asphalt and concrete than ever