Global heat streak continues: April is officially the hottest ever recorded

Australia may have shivered through its coldest April since 2015, but the rest of the world continued to break heat records for the 11th consecutive month.

The global average temperature of the last 12 months (May 2023 to April 2024) has once again reached a new record, 1.61 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average of 1850-1900, according to data published by the Climate Change Service Copernicus of the European Union. .

Although in some parts of the world, including Australia, the average fell, it was the warmest April on record, 1.58°C above pre-industrial levels.

Warm spells in Europe, North America, the Middle East, East Asia, parts of South America and most of Africa contributed to the high global average.

Andrew King, a meteorologist at the University of Melbourne, said the latest records were not surprising.

“It shows how the world is warming and we know that’s because of our greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

“We have other factors at play, in addition, of course, to the gradual and progressive increase in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.

What about El Niño?

Global sea surface temperatures also continued to break records, with April being the 13th consecutive warmest month on record.

While the record high temperature streak is largely due to rising greenhouse gas emissions, especially the burning of fossil fuels, it has been fueled by El Niño.

“Even in a fairly normal year today, because of the warming planet, we typically still see months that are maybe the third or fourth warmest on record,” Dr. King said.

“It doesn’t take much more heat to reach record levels and that’s what El Niño really provides.”

But climate scientists say there is a margin to the extreme heat the world has experienced over the past year that cannot be explained by global warming or known climate factors.