The summer of 2024 was the hottest ever recorded on Earth, making it even more likely that this year will be the hottest ever recorded by humanity, the European climate service Copernicus reported Friday.
And if this sounds familiar, it’s because the records the world has broken were set last year of human origin climate changewith a temporary boost of and El Niñocontinues to increase temperatures and extreme weather conditions, scientists said.
According to Copernicus, the northern meteorological summer (June, July and August) averaged 16.8 degrees Celsius (62.24 degrees Fahrenheit). That’s 0.03 degrees Celsius (0.05 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the previous record of 2023. Copernicus records go back to 1940, but American, British and Japanese records, which start in the mid-19th century, show that the last decade was the warmest since regular measurements were taken and probably in about 120,000 yearsaccording to some scientists.
August 2024 and 2023 were both the hottest Augusts on record, at 16.82 degrees Celsius (62.27 degrees Fahrenheit). July was the first time in over a year that the world did not set a record, falling just short of 2023, but since June 2024 was much warmer than June 2023, this summer overall was the hottest, Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo said.
“These alarming figures show how the climate crisis is tightening its grip on us,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, who was not involved in the study.
It’s a tough take because with the high temperatures, the dew point – one of many ways to measure air humidity – was likely at or near record highs this summer for much of the world, Buontempo said.
Until last month, Buontempo, like other climate scientists, wondered whether 2024 would break the record for the warmest year set last year, mainly because August 2023 was much warmer than average. But this August 2024 tied 2023, making Buontempo “almost certain” that this year will be the warmest on record.
“For 2024 not to become the warmest year on record, we would need to see a very significant cooling of the landscape in recent months, which does not seem likely at this point,” Buontempo said.
With a La Niña (a temporary natural cooling of parts of the central Pacific) forecast, the last four months of the year may no longer be record-breaking months like most of the past year and a half. But it probably won’t be cold enough to prevent 2024 from breaking the annual record, Buontempo said.
These are not just numbers in a record book, but weather phenomena that are harming people, climate scientists said.
“All of this translates into more misery around the world, as places like Phoenix start to look like a locked-down barbecue pit for longer and longer periods of the year,” said Jonathan Overpeck, dean of environmental science and climate scientist at the University of Michigan. 100 days at 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees…
