The warmest month globally measured so far is still July 2023. But this year's July was only 0.04 degrees “cooler”, making it the second warmest month in recorded history.
This means that a 13-month period of record-breaking heat for individual months has now been broken, according to reports from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Service.
– The record-breaking warm months are over, but by a hair. Globally, July 2024 was almost as warm as July 2023, the warmest month on record. The overall picture is unchanged, and our climate continues to warm. The devastating effects of climate change began long before 2023 and will continue until global greenhouse gas emissions reach zero, Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Service, said in a press release.
Temperatures during July this year were 1.48 degrees higher than the estimated average for July during the period 1850-1900, the reference period before the Industrial Revolution.
This also marks the end of a streak of 12 consecutive months in which the global average temperature was 1.5 degrees or higher.
Meanwhile, the two hottest days on record occurred during July this year, on July 22 and 23, when the global average temperature reached 17.15 and 17.16 degrees, respectively.
The 13-month run of record-breaking heat in 2023 and 2024 could be partly explained by a recurring El Niño climate event. But climate scientist Frederic Otto, co-founder of World Weather Attribution, says the end of record-breaking monthly temperatures is nothing to celebrate.
– Even without El Niño, the world is still experiencing extremely dangerous levels of heat. Summer temperatures of over 40 degrees have become the norm in parts of Europe. This level of heat has dire consequences. More than 60,000 people in Europe are believed to have died from extreme heat in 2022, the WHO Science Media Centre says in a commentary.
The severe heat wave in mid-July caused, among other things, the deaths of several people in Greece. According to the Climate Research Network, the heat wave was amplified by three degrees due to the impact of climate on humans.
Temperatures in Greece have already exceeded 40 degrees in several places in June, including the island of Crete where the temperature exceeded 44 degrees.
Earlier in May, a heat wave swept across other parts of the world. Hundreds of people died as temperatures topped 50 degrees in Mexico, Pakistan, India and other countries.
facts.This is how hot it will be in July 2024
• The global average temperature for July 2024 was 16.91°C. This is 0.68°C higher than the July average for the years 1991-2020.
• The global average temperature over the past 12 months (August 2023-July 2024) is 0.76°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.64°C above the pre-industrial reference period of 1850-1900.
• The European average temperature in July 2024 was 1.49 degrees higher than the 1991-2020 average, making this month the second warmest July on record in Europe after July 2010.
• Temperatures in Europe were above average mostly in southern and eastern Europe, but were close to or below average in northwestern Europe.
Source: Copernicus
Read more:
Report: Heatwave in Europe intensified by 3 degrees due to people
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Extreme heat in several parts of the world – hundreds dead
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