June 2024 was also the warmest June on record, 1.5 degrees above the estimated June average for 1850 to 1900, the pre-industrial reference period, according to the EU’s Copernicus climate change service. This made it the twelfth month in a row to reach or exceed the 1.5 degree threshold.
In the Paris Climate Agreement at the end of 2015, the international community set itself the goal of keeping global warming well below two degrees, but if possible limiting it to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times. However, this refers to the average temperature over longer periods of time, not individual months or years.
No defined goal
There is currently no formally agreed definition of what exactly is considered to be exceeding the 1.5 degree target. Many climate experts assume that the 1.5 degree threshold can no longer be met anyway.
According to Copernicus data, the global temperature for the entire period from July 2023 to June 2024 was 1.64 degrees above the pre-industrial average. For 13 months, every single month has been the warmest on record worldwide. Such a record series is “unusual, but a similar series of monthly global temperature records has already been set in 2015/2016,” Copernicus said.
16.66 degrees
The average surface air temperature in June was 16.66 degrees, which was 0.67 degrees above the June average from 1991 to 2020 and 0.14 degrees above the previous high of June 2023. The European average temperature in June 2024 exceeded the average for the June months from 1991 to 2020 by 1.57 degrees. This made it the second warmest June since records began in Europe, it said. It was particularly hot in the southeast of the continent and in Turkey, while temperatures in Western Europe, Iceland and northwest Russia were close to or below average.
June was wetter than average in Iceland, Central Europe and large parts of southwestern Europe, it continues, “with heavy rainfall leading to flooding in several regions of Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland.”
“This is more than just a statistical curiosity”
Outside Europe, temperatures were above average in eastern Canada, the western United States, Mexico, Brazil, northern Siberia, the Middle East, North Africa and western Antarctica.
“More than just a statistical oddity, this highlights a large and ongoing climate change,” explained Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo. “Even if this particular series of extremes eventually ends, we are bound to see new records as the climate continues to warm. This is inevitable if we do not stop pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and oceans.”
The natural weather phenomenon El Niño may have contributed to the temperature records. Every few years it causes water temperatures in parts of the Pacific to rise and air temperatures to rise.
The European Union’s Copernicus climate change service regularly publishes data on the temperature at the Earth’s surface, sea ice cover and precipitation. The findings are based on computer-generated analyses that incorporate billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world. The data used goes back to 1950, and some earlier data is also available.
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Source: Nachrichten
