"Temperatures around the world this month have been at their highest levels in decades for this time of year.

The spike reflects two factors that are shaping what forecasters say could be a multiyear period of exceptional warmth for the planet: humans’ continued emissions of heat-trapping gases and the return, after three years, of the natural climate pattern known as El Niño.

Both factors are also setting the thermodynamic stage for more-severe hot spells, droughts, wildfires and even hurricanes, which acquire their destructive energy from heat in the oceans.

“The short version is: Expect surprises,” Rick Spinrad, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in an interview on Monday. “We’re putting heat into the system — through climate change, through the greenhouse effect — and that heat is going to manifest. That energy is going to manifest in any number of different ways.”"

Elena Shao and Raymond Zhong report for the New York Times June 13, 2023. [2]