Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
THIS past week presented the world with some unusually alarming news about the state of the climate. Forecasters from a number of monitoring agencies announced that last month had the hottest average temperature of any month of June on record, dating back to the mid-19th century. Then on three consecutive days, Monday, July 3, through Wednesday, July 5, record highs for the global average daily temperature were broken. Monday was the first time since measurements began (in 1979) that the world's daily average temperature exceeded 17 degrees Celsius; Tuesday was slightly warmer; and Wednesday was warmer still.
Then on Thursday, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) warned that a large part of the country, including Metro Manila and two dozen other provinces, will experience drought conditions beginning in January 2024 due to the El Niño climate phenomenon. The El Niño, which has already begun, is the cyclical warming of waters in the Eastern Pacific, which generally results in drier weather here in the Philippines for a period that may range from several months to a year or more.
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