Long-term warming trends will counter short-term global warming, potentially resulting in unprecedented heat in 2027.
Repealing EPA’s climate findings is bad news for public health
Nothing has changed in the science of climate change. There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that greenhouse gases are the main cause of global warming.
March’s unusual heat wave has already pushed temperatures to summer levels in many parts of the western and central United States, but a new report comes with a dire warning: “This is just the beginning.”
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced on March 23 that the Earth’s climate is now “the most out of balance in recorded history.”
This long-term warming trend could be met with short-term global warming, resulting in unprecedented heat in 2027.
Short-term impacts for meteorologists include a potentially strong El Niño predicted to begin this fall, which could set further global heat records.
El Niño is a natural warming of Pacific waters that affects weather around the world and often leads to the hottest years on record, including the record-breaking global average temperature in 2024.
If El Niño progresses as expected, Earth will likely experience the warmest year on record, climate scientist Sieg Hausfather told the X program in early March.
The news comes as the WMO reports dire climate change data, and “the global climate situation is in a state of emergency,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement. “Earth is tipping over the edge. All major climate indicators are flashing red.”
US heatwave is the worst on record
According to the Associated Press, a recent analysis by World Weather Attribution found that fossil fuel-driven warming has increased observed temperatures by several degrees, making the March heat wave in the United States “virtually impossible without anthropogenic climate change.”
The heat is raising concerns about drought and lack of snow across the West, and the heat is increasing the likelihood of wildfires in many parts of the country this spring, summer and fall.
In Flagstaff, Arizona, for example, “this event was the most extreme heat event we’ve seen all year,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Regarding the overall heat, he said, “This was probably one of the most unusual heat events (in an extreme sense) ever observed in North America in modern history.”
“This doesn’t mean this month has been hotter than during the July heat wave,” Swain said. “But what this means is that the deviation of temperatures from normal temperatures during this period was significantly larger than in any previously observed event,” he added.
All told, at least 14 states may have set new records for March temperatures.
Concern about climate change increases: “Energy is being stored”
The WMO, the UN’s meteorological agency, said concentrations of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion continue to cause the atmosphere and oceans to warm and ice to melt.
These “rapid and large-scale changes occurred within a few decades, but will have deleterious effects for hundreds and even millennia to come,” the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
According to the WMO, the Earth gains far more heat energy than it releases due to emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.
This record “energy imbalance” heated the oceans to new heights last year and continued to melt the Earth’s ice sheets, the BBC said.
WMO science officer John Kennedy explained that in a balanced system, the amount of energy coming in from the sun is approximately equal to the amount of energy going out, but this is not currently the case.
“Rising greenhouse gas concentrations are reducing energy outflows,” he said in a statement. “More energy coming in than going out means energy is being stored in Earth’s systems.”
Data shows that levels of three major greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – will continue to increase in 2025.
In 2024 (the last year for which we have integrated global observations), atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations reached their highest levels in 2 million years, and methane and nitrous oxide reached their highest levels in at least 800,000 years.
Contributor: Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY
Doyle Rice is a national correspondent for USA TODAY, focusing on weather and climate.
