Daily temperature record were broken two days in a row last month, though the average temperature for the month remained slightly lower than July 2023, currently the hottest month on record.
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The 13-month long record heat streak has come to an end, but only by a very narrow margin, the European Union’s weather monitoring agency Copernicus said on Thursday.
July 2024 saw a global average temperature of 16.91C. This was just 0.04C lower than the average temperature in July 2023, currently the hottest month on record. This makes last month both the second-warmest July and second-warmest month in recorded history.
Until June, monthly average temperatures had broken records every month since May 2023. Scientists blame the hot streak partly on the return of El Niño, which pushed temperatures off the charts worldwide. The weather event is associated with the warming of sea surface temperatures in the central-east equatorial Pacific. It typically occurs every few years, with the most recent one taking place in 2016.
Despite the trend coming to an end, experts warned that extreme heat will continue for as long as the world maintains its reliance on fossil fuels. Coal, the cheapest and dirtiest fossil fuel, is the single-largest source of carbon emissions. It is responsible for over 0.3C of the 1.2C increase in global average temperatures since the Industrial Revolution.
Commenting on the data, Copernicus Climate Change Service’s (C3S) Deputy Director Samantha Burgess said: “The overall context hasn’t changed, our climate continues to warm. The devastating effects of climate change started well before 2023 and will continue until global greenhouse gas emissions reach net-zero.”
The daily temperature record was broken two days in a row last month, on July 21 and 22, when it reached a historic high of 17.15C. According to Copernicus, all ten of the highest global average temperature days have occurred this decade.
Warming Waters
Seas also continued to warm last month. The average sea surface temperature reached 20.88C, the second-highest value on record and only 0.01C shy of the value recorded in July 2023. This put an end to a 15-month period of record-breaking sea surface temperatures.
Oceans are the world’s largest carbon sink. They absorb more than 90% of excess heat created through anthropogenic greenhouse gasses and around 25% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, resulting in ocean warming. This phenomenon leads to coastal eutrophication, ocean acidification, and sea level rise and alters ocean currents. All this can result in massive die-offs of marine species, mass coral bleaching events, and dead zones due to oxygen depletion.
A 2019 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) revealed that in response to climate change, ocean warming events such as marine heatwaves are likely to increase, putting a greater strain on marine ecosystems such as corals.
Warming Planet
The latest data makes it “increasingly likely” that 2024 will be the warmest year yet, beating last year, Copernicus said on Thursday. According to Carbon Brief, there is a 95% likelihood that this will happen.
The increase in extreme heat is a direct result of our warming planet. The primary drivers of global warming are greenhouse gases, which trap heat in the atmosphere, raising Earth’s surface temperature. This leads to longer and hotter heatwaves.
June became the 12th consecutive month to see average temperatures above 1.5C compared to pre-industrial times. The streak was broken last month as the average global surface temperature remained 0.1C below the critical threshold established in 2015 as part of the Paris Agreement. Breaching it over a long period of time – years, if not decades – could trigger multiple tipping points, with devastating and often irreversible consequences affecting the planet’s life-support systems that all societies depend on.
So far, the world has warmed by 1.2C compared to pre-industrial times. More than two-thirds of this warming occurred since 1975.
Featured image: Kyle Lam/hongkongfp.com
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