July ended a dismal streak of 13 straight months of monthly temperature records. But that's nothing to be happy about, because the next record was very closea the whole year could still turn out to be the warmest on record – results from data from the EU climate service Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
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The next record was a close call
On Thursday, C3S experts announced that the average temperature on Earth in July it was exactly 16,91 st. C. This is only 0.04 degrees Celsius below the recordwhich was recorded in July 2023.
The streak of record-breaking months has come to an end, but only by a whisker, said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of C3S.
As the EU agency emphasises, the past month was the second hottest period on record conducted since 1940.
It's getting harder to cope with the heat
According to C3S, the past July was 1.48 degrees Celsius warmer than the average for this month from 1850-1900that is, before fossil fuels began to be burned on a massive scale. The consequences of this state of affairs were felt around the world.
July 22 and 23 were the two hottest days on record – the average global temperature was then 17,6 st. C.
Massive heat waves have swept across the Mediterranean countries and much of Asia this month: China i Japan The hottest July in the history of records there was recorded.
W Pakistan heavy rains led to devastating floods, and much of USA fought widespread forest fires. The Caribbean was devastated by Hurricane Beryl, and recently hurricane debby hit Florida.
The average sea surface temperature was 20.88 degrees Celsius, just 0.01 degrees Celsius below the previous July's record. This happened despite the end of the planet-warming El Niño and the beginning of the cooling La Niña effect.
As the Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Celeste Saulo, said on Wednesday, we are dealing with a year of numerous, extensive and long-lasting heat waveswhich “get too hot to handle.”
This could be the next hottest year
Although no new record was broken, the situation has not improved at all. So far, starting in June 2023, there have been 13 consecutive months of record-breaking temperatures for each period. It came very close to happening again.
Samantha Burgess stresses that the “overall context” of the situation has not changed and “our climate continues to warm“. According to C3S data, from January to June 2024, the average global temperature was 0.70 degrees Celsius higher than the 1991-2020 average.
EU climatologists point out that in order for this year not to be hotter than last year, the temperature should drop significantly, which is difficult to achieve. Therefore, according to specialists “it is increasingly likely that 2024 will be the hottest year on record“.
The deputy director of the EU climate service added that “the devastating impact of climate change started well before 2023 and will continue until the global greenhouse gas emissions balance falls to zero.”
The present The climate “record holder” is 2023. How WMO informed earlier Not only was it the hottest year on record, with temperatures surpassing the pre-industrial average by 1.45 degrees Celsius (3.75 degrees Fahrenheit). It was also, according to the organization, the culmination of the “hottest ten-year period on record.”
Source: AFP, Climate.copernicus.eu
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