The EU’s climate monitor has reported that June 2024 was the hottest June ever recorded globally, capping a six-month period marked by extreme and destructive weather events, including floods and heatwaves.
The global average temperature for June 2024 surpassed the previous record set in June 2023, highlighting a year dominated by severe climate conditions.
The record-breaking heat has affected vast regions worldwide, including India, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Mexico. Persistent rainfall, linked by scientists to a warming planet, caused extensive flooding in Kenya, China, Brazil, Afghanistan, Russia, and France. Additionally, wildfires devastated parts of Greece and Canada, and Hurricane Beryl recently became the earliest category-five Atlantic hurricane on record, impacting several Caribbean islands.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported that every month since June 2023 has set new temperature records, resulting in a 13-month streak of unprecedented global heat. Carlo Buontempo, the director of C3S, emphasized that this pattern is indicative of a significant and ongoing shift in the climate. He warned that new records will continue to be broken as long as heat-trapping gases are added to the atmosphere.
Julien Nicolas, a senior scientist at C3S, noted that the record-breaking temperatures were partly due to El Nino, a natural phenomenon that increases global temperatures. However, he stressed that El Nino was not the sole factor. Ocean water temperatures have also reached unprecedented levels, with record highs observed in the Atlantic, Northern Pacific, and Indian Oceans.
In June, seawater temperatures marked the 15th consecutive month of record-breaking highs, a situation Nicolas described as “remarkable.” Oceans cover 70% of the Earth’s surface and absorb 90% of the additional heat linked to greenhouse gas emissions.
As the world transitions into a La Nina phase, which typically has a cooling effect, Nicolas predicted that global air temperatures might decrease in the coming months. However, he cautioned that if record sea surface temperatures persist, 2024 could still be warmer than 2023, despite La Nina conditions.
Copernicus reported that the Earth’s atmospheric temperature from December 2021 to June 2024 reached a record high, being 1.64 degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial era. While this does not mean that the 1.5-degree Celsius increase set by the 2015 Paris Agreement has been permanently surpassed, there is an 80 percent probability that the Earth’s yearly average temperatures will temporarily exceed this threshold within the next five years.
