Last month marked the hottest June on record – the 13-month streak of unprecedented global heat, as per the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Every month since June 2023 has been the hottest since records began, compared to the corresponding month in previous years.
Scientists fear the exceptional temperature noted last June puts 2024 on track to be the planet’s hottest recorded year, the monitoring service said in a monthly bulletin on Monday. The changed climate has already unleashed disastrous consequences across the globe.
So far in 2024, scorching heat has troubled people in several countries from India to Saudi Arabia, the US and Mexico. Relentless rain, a phenomena scientists have linked to global heat and, has triggered extensive flooding. Hurricanes and wildfires have been more common.
Can La Nina help global temperatures drop soon?
The latest data suggests 2024 could outrank 2023 as the hottest year since records started to be kept after human activities-led climate change and the recently concluded El Nino phenomenon both pushed global temperatures to record highs in the year so far.
The planet is about to transition into a La Nina phase – which has a cooling effect compared to El Nino. Julien Nicolas, a senior scientist at Copernicus, expects the global air temperature to drop in the next handful of months due to the upcoming natural phenomenon.
But it’s still too early to tell. Even if the string of record temperatures in different months ends at some point, the planet is still bound to see fresh records being broken as the climate continues to heat up, noted Carlo Buontempo, the service director at Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Has the 2015 Paris agreement been breached?
Ocean temperatures have also been hitting fresh records lately. Record sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic, the Northern Pacific and Indian Ocean have been contributing to the rising heat in different parts of the globe.
Sea surface temperatures hit a separate milestone in June – 15 consecutive months of fresh highs. The oceans cover 70% of the Earth’s surface and absorb 90% of the extra heat linked to rising climate-heating greenhouse gas emissions.
Changes to the ocean surface also impact the air temperature above the surface and global average temperature. Global air temperatures in the 12 months to June 2024 are on average 1.64 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. But the Paris deal has not been breached.
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