The global temperature soared to unprecedented levels in June 2024, making it the hottest June ever recorded, according to the European Union’s climate monitor, Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). This marks the culmination of six months of extreme and destructive weather events, including floods and heatwaves.
Since June 2023, each month has set new temperature records, continuing a 13-month streak of unparalleled global heat. Carlo Buontempo, Director of C3S, emphasized the significance of this trend, stating, “This is more than a statistical oddity and it highlights a large and continuing shift in our climate.” He warned that new records will inevitably continue to be broken as long as humanity keeps emitting heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.
June’s global average temperature surpassed the previous record set in June 2023. This record-breaking heat was part of a year characterized by extreme climate events. From India to Saudi Arabia, and across the United States and Mexico, scorching heatwaves have plagued large regions. Concurrently, relentless rains, attributed to a warming planet, have caused severe flooding in Kenya, China, Brazil, Afghanistan, Russia, and France.
In addition, wildfires have ravaged land in Greece and Canada, and Hurricane Beryl recently became the earliest category-five Atlantic hurricane on record, impacting several Caribbean islands.
The record-breaking temperatures coincided with the El Niño phenomenon, which contributes to global warming, explained Julien Nicolas, a senior scientist at C3S. However, El Niño was not the sole factor. Oceans, which cover 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and absorb 90 percent of the excess heat from rising emissions, have also hit record temperatures. The Atlantic, Northern Pacific, and Indian Oceans have all seen unprecedented sea surface temperatures, continuing a 15-month streak of new highs.
As the world transitions into a La Niña phase, which typically has a cooling effect, global air temperatures are expected to decrease slightly in the coming months. However, if the record sea surface temperatures persist, 2024 could still be warmer than 2023. Global air temperatures in the 12 months leading up to June 2024 were the highest ever recorded, averaging 1.64°C above pre-industrial levels.
This does not signify a breach of the 1.5°C warming limit set by the 2015 Paris Agreement, which measures long-term averages rather than individual years. Nevertheless, Copernicus noted an 80 percent chance that Earth’s annual average temperatures will temporarily exceed the 1.5°C mark within the next five years.
