Scientists have confirmed that the summer of 2024 set global heat records for the second consecutive year, making 2024 the most likely to be the hottest year on record.
The summer of 2024 was the hottest in history PHOTO Archive
Data from Copernicus, the European climate change service, shows that the months of June to August were the warmest since records began in 1940, according to France24.
That comes after global records that were broken were set just last year amid human-caused climate change, with a temporary boost from an El Niño phenomenon that continues to raise temperatures and extreme weather, scientists said.
The meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere — June, July and August — averaged 16.8 degrees Celsius (62.24 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Copernicus. This is 0.03 degrees Celsius (0.05 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the old record set in 2023.
The Augusts of 2024 and 2023 were the warmest global Augusts at 16.82 degrees Celsius (62.27 degrees Fahrenheit). July was the first month in more than a year that the world did not set a record, slightly behind 2023, but because June 2024 was much warmer than June 2023, the entire summer was the hottest, said Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus.
Until last month, Buontempo, like other climatologists, was unsure whether 2024 would break the heat record set last year, in large part because August 2023 was so warm. But this August 2024 equaled 2023, making Buontempo “pretty sure” that this year will be the warmest on record.
“For 2024 to not become the warmest year on record, we need to see a significant cooling of the landscape over the last few months, which does not seem likely at this stage”Buontempo said.
“War Zone”
Jennifer Francis, a climatologist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center on Cape Cod, said it was an avalanche of extreme weather, including heat, flooding, wildfires and high winds, that are violent and dangerous.
“Like people living in a war zone with constant bomb blasts and gunfire, we become deaf to what should be alarm bells and air defense sirens”Francis said in an email.
Although some of last year’s record heat was caused by an El Niño phenomenon — a temporary natural warming of parts of the central Pacific that alters global weather — that effect has disappeared, and it appears that the main driver is climate change caused by people from burning coal, oil and natural gas, Buontempo said.
“It’s not at all surprising that we’re seeing this heat wave, these temperature extremes,” Buontempo said. “We’re destined to see even more.”
