(Paris) – The European Copernicus Observatory announced on Monday that June 2024 was the hottest month ever recorded in the world, surpassing the already exceptional record set in June 2023.
After more than a year of continuous monthly records, “the global average temperature over the past 12 months (July 2023-June 2024) is the highest ever recorded,” according to Copernicus, “1.64°C above the pre-industrial average of 1850-1900, when greenhouse gas emissions had not yet warmed the planet.”
June 2024 “The 13th”H A consecutive month of record global temperatures and 12H “A consecutive month exceeding the pre-industrial averages by 1.5°C” (1850-1900), Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), confirmed in a press release.
The scientist adds, at the end of a month marked by intense heat waves in China, India, Mexico, Greece and Saudi Arabia, where more than 1,300 people died during the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca.
While the temperature was close to or below seasonal norms (1991-2020) in Western Europe, such as France, a large part of humanity experienced temperatures above norms, and even exceptional ones.
The aftermath of June's heat waves forced the evacuation of thousands of people in California following devastating fires, while residents in the Balkans, Pakistan and Egypt suffered power outages that knocked out essential fans, air conditioners or refrigerators.
“Even if this particular series of extreme measures ends at some point,” with the end of the cyclical El Niño event that has boosted global warming for a year, “new records will be broken as the climate continues to warm” due to human greenhouse gas emissions, the C3S director noted.
With La Niña expected to arrive by the end of the year, synonymous with lower global temperatures, “we can expect global temperatures to drop in the coming months,” said Julian Nicolas, a C3S scientist.
The global temperature at the end of 2024 will depend largely on the evolution of ocean heat, which covers 70% of the planet and whose surface water temperature has remained significantly above all records for more than a year.
“If these record temperatures continue, despite the development of La Niña, 2024 could be hotter than the record 2023, but it is too early to say,” says Julian Nicola.
