April extends the streak of record temperatures in the world to 11 consecutive months

A heat mirage on a highway during a nationwide heat wave in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on April 26, 2024. Kazi Salahuddin Razu/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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The planet just recorded the hottest April ever recorded, extending an unprecedented streak of 11 consecutive months, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

The C3S monthly bulletin said the average global temperature was 1.61 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, the highest in a 12-month period. It was also 0.73 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average.

“El Niño peaked earlier in the year and sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific are now returning to neutral conditions. However, as temperature variations associated with natural cycles such as El Niño come and go, the additional energy trapped in the ocean and atmosphere by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases will continue to push global temperatures toward new records,” said the C3S director, Carlo Buontempo, in the report. report.

For months, ocean surface temperatures also broke records, leading scientists to question whether a tipping point had been reached due to human activity, Reuters reported.

“I think a lot of scientists have wondered if there could be a change in the climate system,” said Julien Nicolas, senior climate scientist at C3S, as reported by Reuters.

Berkeley Earth research scientist Zeke Hausfather has estimated that there is a 66 percent chance that this year will be the warmest on record, and a 99 percent chance that it will be the second warmest, CNN reported. Hausfather added that the best estimate is that the global average temperature by 2024 will be just over 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Eastern European regions recorded higher than average temperatures in April 2024, according to the C3S report. Iceland and Fennoscandia recorded below average temperatures.

In addition to Europe, most of Africa, parts of South America, eastern Asia, Greenland, northern and northeastern parts of North America and the northwestern Middle East recorded temperatures that were above average for the month.

“El Niño in the eastern equatorial Pacific continued to weaken toward neutral conditions, but overall marine air temperatures remained at an unusually high level,” C3S said. “This is the 13th consecutive month that the SST ((sea surface temperature)) has been the warmest in the ERA5 data record for the respective month of the year.”

While the 2015 Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degrees Celsius target has not been officially surpassed (the target refers to an average temperature for the planet over a period of decades), some scientists believe the target is already out of reach. scope and that governments should focus on reducing carbon emissions as quickly as possible, Reuters reported.

“At what point do we declare that we have lost the battle to keep temperatures below 1.5ºC? My personal view is that we have already lost that battle, and we really need to think very seriously about staying below 2°C and reducing our emissions as quickly as we can,” said Newcastle University climate scientist Hayley Fowler. as reported by Reuters.

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