NASA Reports Record Global Temperatures, Warns of More Extreme Weather Events

“There is more fuel available so that the fire can remain with greater intensity,” said the expert, who recalled that California has suffered a major drought in recent years. Jan 10, 2025 Photo: EFE

January 10, 2025 Hour: 7:32 pm

“There will be more hurricanes, fires, droughts, and not only more but also of greater intensity,” he said.

NASA released a new global temperature record this Friday, which, although it cannot be directly linked to the deadly fires in California, the huge snowfalls, or hurricanes last year in the US, does make these types of events more prone and intense. This is according to Carlos del Castillo, a scientist at the agency, as reported by EFE.

“When we have an effect where we’re raising the temperature, one way to look at it is that there’s a lot more energy in the system, there’s a lot more energy in the atmosphere, much more energy in the oceans, and the result of that is (…) we’re going to have more extreme events,” said Castillo, head of the Ocean Ecology Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

“There will be more hurricanes, fires, droughts, and not only more but also of greater intensity,” he said.

2024 was the warmest year on record. Our experts work with @NOAA scientists to track Earth’s average temperature, relying on millions of measurements worldwide. They found this year was hotter than any since at least 1880, the result of human activities: https://t.co/bVchhDzQku pic.twitter.com/tBWymaFYOT
— NASA (@NASA) January 10, 2025

For the expert, although it cannot be said that these fires—which have left at least a dozen dead and thousands of structures damaged—were caused by global warming, it is causing greater and more prolonged droughts, greater heat waves, and the vegetation is drier and more likely to catch fire.

“There is more fuel available so that the fire can remain with greater intensity,” said the expert, who recalled that California has suffered a major drought in recent years.

“It’s easier to have fires, and fires are much more intense,” he emphasized.

He explained that last year was 2.30 degrees Fahrenheit (1.28 degrees Celsius) hotter than the average NASA baseline, which is between 1951 and 1980.

However, he said that the important thing is not that one year is warmer than another, but “the trend.” And the last ten years have been the hottest since NASA started consistently taking temperature records on the planet.

“Obviously, the underlying problem is that we continue to emit greenhouse gases due to fossil fuels,” said the Puerto Rican scientist.