EXPLAINER
The world has confronted its twelfth straight month of historic warmth, with this summer season on monitor to be among the many hottest but.
Whereas summer season has solely simply begun within the Northern Hemisphere, heatwaves have already gripped many components of the world together with throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe, the Center East and South Asia.
Excessive warmth has led to greater than a thousand deaths, pressing well being warnings and faculty closures.
July is traditionally the most popular month of the 12 months, the place in components of the Northern Hemisphere, temperatures often exceed 40C (104F).
Based on the UN’s World Meteorological Group (WMO), July 2023 was the warmest month ever recorded, seemingly the most popular for at the very least the previous 120,000 years, with this 12 months already on monitor to be one of many hottest but.
Axial tilt and the summer season solstice
The Earth is tilted 23.5 levels on its axis because it orbits the solar.
This ends in various quantities of daylight at totally different instances of the 12 months, which creates the altering seasons.
Astronomical summer season begins on the summer season solstice, which is round June 20 or 21 within the Northern Hemisphere and round December 21 or 22 within the Southern Hemisphere.
That is the day when the solar reaches its highest level within the sky at midday, resulting in the longest day and shortest evening of the 12 months.
The a part of the Earth that receives probably the most quantity of direct daylight is 23.5 levels above the equator, which is called the Tropic of Most cancers.
This line passes via Mexico, the Bahamas, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and India amongst different international locations, contributing to very popular summers.
Summer time within the Northern Hemisphere
Whereas half of the Earth’s land mass experiences summer season from June to September, roughly 90 p.c of the world’s inhabitants lives within the Northern Hemisphere, the place these months coincide with extra direct daylight and longer daytime.
In northernmost cities across the Arctic Circle, the solar doesn’t set between late Could and late July in a phenomenon often called the midnight solar.
Conversely, in the course of the winter months, these identical places expertise a polar evening, the place the solar stays beneath the horizon between late November and late January.
Why is the afternoon hotter than midday?
Throughout the summer season months, extra of the solar’s power is absorbed into the bottom, which heats up the encompassing air and results in hotter temperatures.
The time delay between the heating and releasing is called seasonal lag.
The Earth’s floor, particularly massive our bodies of water like oceans, which comprise 70 p.c of the Earth’s floor, takes time to soak up warmth from the solar and subsequently launch it.
This explains why the height temperature of the day happens within the afternoon, not at noon, and why July, reasonably than June, usually experiences the best common temperatures.
Tips on how to keep cool this summer season
As summer season temperatures soar in varied areas throughout the globe, with some even shattering all-time heatwave information, staying cool turns into essential. Happily, there are efficient strategies to beat the warmth, whether or not you’ve entry to air-con or not.
Listed here are 10 ideas to assist minimise the danger of warmth stroke:
