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(CN) — This summer was the hottest on record globally, making it even more likely that 2024 will surpass last year as the warmest year ever measured, according to the European Union’s climate monitor.
This baking season was part of the globe’s warmest 12-month stretch ever measured, after an El Niño warming pattern set in last spring and boosted the temperature of a planet smitten by human-caused climate change.
August’s temperatures matched those of last year’s record-setting August, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the EU’s climate monitor. It was 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than average.
It also was the 13th month in a 14-month period with record-setting heat. Only July failed by a whisker to break a monthly record, though July 22 was the warmest day ever measured.
In the northern hemisphere, June, July and August averaged 16.8 degrees Celsius (62.24 degrees Fahrenheit), or 0.03 degrees Celsius (0.05 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the previous summer record in 2023. Copernicus keeps records back to 1940.
“This string of record temperatures is increasing the likelihood of 2024 being the hottest year on record,” said Samantha Burgess, the Copernicus deputy director.
The Earth would have to see a significant 0.30 C (0.54 F) drop in average temperatures over the remaining months for 2024 not to wind up as even warmer than last year, the warmest year on record, Copernicus said. The agency says it’s never seen such a dip in its data.
“The temperature-related extreme events witnessed this summer will only become more intense, with more devastating consequences for people and the planet unless we take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” she said.
This summer has been marked by extreme weather — devastating heat waves, drought, intense storms — in many parts of the northern hemisphere. El Niños are natural patterns linked to a warming of the central Pacific Ocean. They are well known for bringing unruly weather. This El Niño dissipated this summer and a milder La Niña pattern is forecast to emerge by year’s end, likely bringing cooler temperatures and more rain, according to meteorologists.
Europe’s summer was a split picture with the southern and eastern regions baking in above-average heat while it was cooler and rainier than average in many parts of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway and the Atlantic coast of Portugal.
Parts of the Mediterranean basin are enduring an extended drought and sweltering temperatures that have led to water emergencies and rationing in Spain and Italy.
In the United States, southwestern states baked in heat waves with Phoenix surpassing 110 degrees 55 times this summer, tying a record set just last year.
Elsewhere, temperatures were hotter than average in northeast Africa, Iran, China, Japan and Australia, Copernicus said. In Japan, June, July and August averaged 1.76 C (3.16 F) higher than the average between 1991 and 2020, making it the hottest summer since comparable records were first kept in 1898 and matching the record set in 2023, the country’s meteorological agency said.
In the Arctic, the extent of sea ice in August was 17% smaller than average, making it the fourth-smallest on record for the month, the agency said. Ice concentrations in the Antarctic sea were below average by 7% — the second lowest extent for August.
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.
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