The Earth has just experienced its hottest summer on record, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said Friday.
It says the new record surpasses last year's, driven by human-caused climate change and a temporary boost from the El Niño weather pattern.
According to Copernicus, the average temperature for the Northern Hemisphere's summer months — June, July, and August — was 16.8 degrees Celsius (62.24 degrees Fahrenheit).
That is 0.03 degrees Celsius (0.05 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the previous record set last year.
Copernicus data goes back to 1940, but records from the U.S., U.K., and Japan, which began in the mid-19th century, suggest that the past decade has been the hottest in about 120,000 years.
Both August 2023 and August 2024 were tied as the hottest Augusts globally, with temperatures reaching 16.82 degrees Celsius (62.27 degrees Fahrenheit).
July 2024 was close to setting a record, but extreme heat in June 2024 made this summer the warmest overall, said Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus.
Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, highlighted the significance of the rising temperatures.
“What those sober numbers indicate is how the climate crisis is tightening its grip on us,” Rahmstorf said.
Initially, Buontempo was unsure if 2024 would surpass 2023 as the hottest year on record due to the extreme heat in August 2023.
However, with August 2024 matching last year's temperatures, Buontempo is now certain that 2024 will set a new record unless significant cooling occurs in the remaining months.
With a forecasted La Niña — which temporarily cools parts of the central Pacific — the last four months of the year may not be temperature record-setters, but it’s also doubtful to be cool enough to keep 2024 from setting a new record.
Extreme weather events linked to climate change continue to affect people around the world.
In Sudan, last month’s heavy rains caused flooding that impacted more than 300,000 people and led to a cholera outbreak.
Severe droughts are affecting the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia, while Typhoon Gaemi has devastated the Philippines, Taiwan, and China, resulting in over 100 deaths.
U.S. climate envoy John Podesta visited China this week to discuss climate policies ahead of the United Nations climate summit in November.
Podesta met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday before concluding his three-day visit to Beijing, where he and his Chinese counterpart, Liu Zhenmin, co-chaired meetings on domestic climate policies for both countries.
Podesta’s visit underscored the potential for cooperation between the two largest greenhouse gas emitters despite broader geopolitical tensions.
Wang, during his opening remarks, said Podesta’s meeting with Liu “sent a positive signal that China and the United States, the two big countries, should and can cooperate.”
The record heat is attributed to human-caused climate change and an earlier El Niño event — a natural warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean water, which boosts global temperatures as well as changes weather patterns worldwide.
While La Niña may offer some temporary relief, it is unlikely to significantly alter the overall warming trend, according to Copernicus.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters and the Associated Press.
