NEW YORK, August 2. /Dunyo IA/. The planet is entering a period of unprecedented heat, while the intensifying El Niño phenomenon could lead to new temperature records in the coming months, reports Dunyo IA correspondent.

According to UN News, this was stated by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who called on governments to accelerate measures to protect populations and abandon plans to further expand the use of fossil fuels.

“We have already experienced a summer of extreme weather events: record-breaking heatwaves, apocalyptic wildfires raging in Spain, France and far beyond, and thousands of lives lost due to this relentless heat, said the United Nations Secretary-General in his remarks in New York. - In addition, record-high sea surface temperatures were recorded in June and July”.

“However, according to the latest scientific data, this is only a prelude. New forecasts released today by the World Meteorological Organization paint a worrying picture of what to expect from August to October”, António Guterres emphasized.

According to forecasts, air temperatures across almost all land areas are expected to remain above the climate average through October. The UN Secretary-General noted that El Niño affects not only temperatures but also precipitation patterns. According to him, the monsoon season in India is already significantly weaker than usual, while forecasts indicate a further deterioration of the situation in the region.

According to the UN chief, extreme heat has long been described as a “silent killer”; however, even this definition does not fully reflect the scale of the problem, as many deaths linked to exposure to high temperatures are not officially recorded.

At the same time, the pace of warming is outpacing global efforts being undertaken to address it.

United Nations Secretary-General called for efforts to focus on four areas: protecting people through action plans and early warning systems, ensuring safe working conditions, adapting cities and infrastructure to extreme heat and addressing the root causes of the climate crisis.

According to forecasts, seasonal anomalies in average sea surface temperatures are expected to exceed 2.9 degrees Celsius in key monitoring areas. In addition, a positive Indian Ocean Dipole is forecast, with the climate pattern in the western part of the Indian Ocean becoming warmer than average, while the eastern part becomes cooler. Taken together, these factors could intensify such phenomena as droughts, floods, and wildfires. Sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic Ocean are also expected to remain above average.

According to the bulletin of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), temperatures are highly likely to exceed average levels across most of the Earth’s land areas. The clearest signs of this trend are being observed across Africa, southern Europe, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent, eastern Asia, Central America, Caribbean and large parts of South America and New Zealand

At the same time, from August to October 2026, wetter-than-usual conditions are expected in the Greater Horn of Africa, parts of Central Asia, Southern Europe, as well as the western part of North America and the southeast of South America. In contrast, drier-than-usual conditions are more likely in the Indian subcontinent, southern and eastern Australia, southern parts of Central America and some areas of the Caribbean, as well as northwestern South America and Northern Europe.

Photo from the UN portal