Summer 2024 Was World’s Hottest Ever Recorded, EU’s Climate Change Monitor Says

According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the summer of 2024 was the planet’s warmest on record for the Northern Hemisphere.

The extreme heat of this year’s boreal summer — June to August — means it is more likely that the average global temperature for the entire year will be hotter than that of 2023.

“During the past three months of 2024, the globe has experienced the hottest June and August, the hottest day on record, and the hottest boreal summer on record. This string of record temperatures is increasing the likelihood of 2024 being the hottest year on record,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of C3S, in a press release from C3S.

This summer’s average global temperature was 0.69 degrees Celsius higher than the period 1991 to 2020, surpassing last year’s average of 0.66 degrees Celsius above the temperature for that period.

August was 1.51 degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial average and marks the 13th month out of the last 14 during which the world’s average surface air temperature was higher than the benchmark of 1.5 degrees Celsius, above which the planet begins to experience the worst effects of climate change.

In the past 12 months, the average global temperature was 1.64 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average — the highest ever recorded for any 12-month period.

“The average anomaly for the remaining months of this year would need to drop by at least 0.30°C for 2024 not to be warmer than 2023. This has never happened in the entire ERA5 dataset, making it increasingly likely that 2024 is going to be the warmest year on record,” the press release said.

In Europe, the average land-based temperature for August was 1.57 degrees higher than the monthly average for 1991 to 2020 — the second-hottest ever recorded for the continent.

According to C3S, this summer was wetter than average in northern and western Europe and drier than average for most of Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, with drought in some areas.

Temperatures on the continent were most above average in eastern and southern Europe, while northwestern portions of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Portugal’s west coast and southern Norway saw below-average temperatures.

In other regions of the world, the most above average temperatures occurred in Antarctica, Canada, Mexico, Texas, Japan, China, Iran, northeast Africa and Australia.

The eastern United States, Alaska, areas of southern South America, Russia, Pakistan and the Sahel experienced below-average temperatures.

Sea ice extent in the Arctic was 17 percent below average in August — the fourth lowest for the month in the satellite data record and distinctly more below average than the previous three years.

August’s Antarctic sea ice extent was the second-lowest in the satellite record at seven percent below average.

“Sea ice concentration anomalies were below average across virtually all of the Arctic Ocean,” the press release said.

Last month’s hot temperatures brought drier-than-average weather to most of continental Europe, with areas of the east and south experiencing drought and wildfires.

Mexico, southern North America, China, regions of Russia and most of Southern Africa and South America also saw drier-than-average conditions, with wildfires in Siberia, Canada and Brazil.

Meanwhile, the northern UK and Ireland, continental Europe’s northern seaboard, Russia and Türkiye were rainier than normal, bringing flooding and damage to some areas.

In August, North America also saw wetter-than-average conditions — partially due to Hurricane Debby — along with eastern China, Russia and eastern Australia. Monsoon rains pummeled the Indian subcontinent, and heavy rains led to flooding in Ethiopia, Sudan and Eritrea, while Typhoon Shanshan brought torrential rainfall to Japan.

Burgess noted that, if humans do not urgently lower their greenhouse gas emissions, temperature-related weather extremes “will only become more intense, with more devastating consequences for people and the planet.”