-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email The last twelve months have been the hottest in recorded human history. This relentess pattern is being driven by human-caused climate change, but also El Niño, a natural part of our global weather cycle that results in hotter temperatures. Though we are now entering the colder La Niña phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which should bring some cooler temperatures over several years, some experts say that our heating planet is so out of balance, the cooling could make little difference.
Even though our species' greenhouse gas emissions are raising Earth's temperatures to perilous levels , the La Niña phase is known to cool both ocean and land temperatures, potentially ameliorating extreme weather like heatwaves, wildfires and tropical storms. "The forecast is for hotter and dryer in [the] western half of the US." Yet when Salon reached out to experts about what people can expect in Summer 2024, the answer was the same: La Niña is a powerful force, but climate change is an even stronger one.
The summer of 2024 will, unfortunately, be full of nasty weather. Related "Lost winter": January and February shattered heat records, alarming climate scientists "The forecast is for hotter and drier in [the] western half of the U.S.
," Dr. Kevin Trenberth, a distinguished scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told Salon. "Influences of [sea surface temperatures] are less in summer owing to the way atmosphe.
