Earth records its hottest 12-month stretch: US study

Washington DC [US]: A new US study has found has said the Earth just recorded its hottest 12-month stretch, CBS News reported.

CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS.

As per a report from Climate Central, the planet ran nearly 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit above average from November 2022 through October 2023.

The report said that 90 per cent of people worldwide, and 49 per cent in the US, experienced at least ten days of temperatures very strongly influenced by climate change.

In addition to heatwaves, costly and deadly wildfires, droughts and extreme weather also took a toll on populations across the globe, according to CBS News.

November 22-October 23 was warm but not extreme for the Twin Cities (1.4°F above average), Minnesota (1.3°F above average) or the US as a whole (1.1°F above average).

The Gulf Coast was the hottest in the US with Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Florida ranking first for their hottest November 2022 through October 2023 period.

The Climate Central report revealed that only two countries around the world were below average — Lesotho and Iceland. The hottest international spots were Europe and North Africa, with some countries running more than 3°F above average.

Weather attribution analysis reveals that during the 12-month span, 5.7 billion people were exposed to at least 30 days of above-average temperatures made at least three times more likely by the influence of climate change, or level-three on Climate Central’s Climate Shift Index.

That exposure included nearly every resident of Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Italy, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, and every Caribbean and Central American nation.

In India, 1.2 billion residents — 86 per cent of the population — experienced Climate Shift Index level-three temperatures on 30 or more days. In China, that figure was 513 million residents — 35 per cent of the population; and in the United States, 88 million — 26 per cent of the population – experienced at least 30 days of temperatures made at least three times more likely by climate change.