By AFP
September 5, 2024
California suffered a heatwave in early September
- Copyright AFP Sergei CHUZAVKOV
Benjamin LEGENDRE
The 2024 northern summer saw the highest global temperatures ever recorded, beating last year’s record and making this year likely Earth’s hottest ever, the EU’s climate monitor said Friday.
The data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service followed a season of heatwaves around the world that scientists said were intensified by human-driven climate change.
“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,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, said in a report.
“This string of record temperatures is increasing the likelihood of 2024 being the hottest year on record.”
The average global temperature at the Earth’s surface was 16.82C in August, according to Copernicus, which draws on billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations.
The June and August global temperature broke through the level of 1.5C above the pre-industrial average — a key threshold for limiting the worst effects of climate change.
Human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet, raising the likelihood and intensity of climate disasters such as droughts, fires and floods.
Heat was exacerbated in 2023 and early 2024 by the cyclical weather phenomenon El Nino, though Copernicus scientist Julien Nicolas told AFP its effects were not as strong as they sometimes are.
Meanwhile the contrary cyclical cooling phenomenon, known as La Nina, has not yet started, he said.
– Emissions reductions –
Against the global trend, regions such as Alaska, the eastern United States, parts of South America, Pakistan and the Sahel desert zone in northern Africa had lower than average temperatures in August, the report said.
But others such as Australia — where it was winter — parts of China, Japan and Spain experienced record warmth in August.
Globally, August 2024 matched that month’s previous global temperature record from one year earlier, while this June was hotter than last, Copernicus data in the report showed.
July was slightly hotter in 2023 than this year, but on average the three-month period broke the record in 2024.
Governments have targets to reduce their countries’ planet-heating emissions to try to keep the rise below 1.5C under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Scientists will not consider that threshold to be definitively passed until it has been observed being breached over several decades. The average level of warming is currently about 1.2C, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.
Copernicus said the 1.5C level has been passed in 13 of the past 14 months.
– Wildfires, hurricanes –
The oceans are also heating to record levels, raising the risk of more intense storms.
Copernicus said that outside of the poles, the average sea surface temperature in August was just under 21C, the second-highest level on record for that month.
It said August “was drier than average over most of continental Europe” — noting the wildfires that struck countries such as Greece.
But places such as western Russia and Turkey were wetter than normal, with floods in some places.
The eastern United States had more rain than usual, including areas lashed by Hurricane Debby.
“The temperature-related extreme events witnessed this summer will only become more intense, with more devastating consequences for people and the planet unless we take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Copernicus’s deputy director Burgess said.
Some researchers say that emissions in some of the biggest countries may have peaked or will soon do so, partly as a result of the drive towards low-carbon energy.
The 2024 northern summer saw the highest global temperatures ever recorded, beating last year’s record and making this year likely Earth’s hottest ever, the EU’s climate monitor said Friday.
The data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service followed a season of heatwaves around the world that scientists said were intensified by human-driven climate change.
“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,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, said in a report.
“This string of record temperatures is increasing the likelihood of 2024 being the hottest year on record.”
The average global temperature at the Earth’s surface was 16.82C in August, according to Copernicus, which draws on billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations.
The June and August global temperature broke through the level of 1.5C above the pre-industrial average — a key threshold for limiting the worst effects of climate change.
Human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet, raising the likelihood and intensity of climate disasters such as droughts, fires and floods.
Heat was exacerbated in 2023 and early 2024 by the cyclical weather phenomenon El Nino, though Copernicus scientist Julien Nicolas told AFP its effects were not as strong as they sometimes are.
Meanwhile the contrary cyclical cooling phenomenon, known as La Nina, has not yet started, he said.
– Emissions reductions –
Against the global trend, regions such as Alaska, the eastern United States, parts of South America, Pakistan and the Sahel desert zone in northern Africa had lower than average temperatures in August, the report said.
But others such as Australia — where it was winter — parts of China, Japan and Spain experienced record warmth in August.
Globally, August 2024 matched that month’s previous global temperature record from one year earlier, while this June was hotter than last, Copernicus data in the report showed.
July was slightly hotter in 2023 than this year, but on average the three-month period broke the record in 2024.
Governments have targets to reduce their countries’ planet-heating emissions to try to keep the rise below 1.5C under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Scientists will not consider that threshold to be definitively passed until it has been observed being breached over several decades. The average level of warming is currently about 1.2C, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.
Copernicus said the 1.5C level has been passed in 13 of the past 14 months.
– Wildfires, hurricanes –
The oceans are also heating to record levels, raising the risk of more intense storms.
Copernicus said that outside of the poles, the average sea surface temperature in August was just under 21C, the second-highest level on record for that month.
It said August “was drier than average over most of continental Europe” — noting the wildfires that struck countries such as Greece.
But places such as western Russia and Turkey were wetter than normal, with floods in some places.
The eastern United States had more rain than usual, including areas lashed by Hurricane Debby.
“The temperature-related extreme events witnessed this summer will only become more intense, with more devastating consequences for people and the planet unless we take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Copernicus’s deputy director Burgess said.
Some researchers say that emissions in some of the biggest countries may have peaked or will soon do so, partly as a result of the drive towards low-carbon energy.
China logs hottest August in more than six decades
BEIJING – China logged its hottest August since 1961 in 2024, the national weather service said, after the country endured a summer of extreme weather and heatwaves across much of its north and west.
China is the leading emitter of the greenhouse gas emissions scientists say are driving global climate change and making extreme weather events more frequent.
Beijing has pledged to bring planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060.
On Sept 6, the China Meteorological Administration said in a statement that “China experienced prolonged and extreme high temperatures” in August.
“The national average temperature was the highest for the same period since 1961,” it added.
The national average temperature in August was 22.6 deg C, 1.5 deg C higher than the same period in a typical year, Dr Jia Xiaolong, deputy director of the National Climate Centre, was quoted as saying.
“The northern regions experienced frequent and highly destructive rainstorms, while large-scale heatwaves persisted in the southern regions,” Dr Jia said.
“Nineteen national weather stations recorded daily maximum temperatures that either matched or exceeded historical records,” he added.
The record-breaking figures followed another report from the weather service on Sept 1 that average air temperatures in August in eight provinces, regions and cities “ranked the hottest for the same period” since records began.
They included the megacity of Shanghai, the provinces of Jiangsu, Hebei, Hainan, Jilin, Liaoning and Shandong as well as the north-west region of Xinjiang, the weather service said.
A further five provinces chalked up their second-hottest August, while seven more endured their third-hottest.
The Chinese weather authorities had also said July was the country’s hottest month since records began, state media reported, as extreme temperatures persist across large parts of the globe.
Extreme heat has seared much of East Asia this summer.
Japan also on Sept 2 said that its long-term average temperature between June and August was 1.76 deg C above the standard value – equalling the level seen in summer 2023 – the highest since statistics started being kept in 1898.
China is the leading emitter of the greenhouse gas emissions scientists say are driving global climate change.
Sep 06, 2024
BEIJING – China logged its hottest August since 1961 in 2024, the national weather service said, after the country endured a summer of extreme weather and heatwaves across much of its north and west.
China is the leading emitter of the greenhouse gas emissions scientists say are driving global climate change and making extreme weather events more frequent.
Beijing has pledged to bring planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060.
On Sept 6, the China Meteorological Administration said in a statement that “China experienced prolonged and extreme high temperatures” in August.
“The national average temperature was the highest for the same period since 1961,” it added.
The national average temperature in August was 22.6 deg C, 1.5 deg C higher than the same period in a typical year, Dr Jia Xiaolong, deputy director of the National Climate Centre, was quoted as saying.
“The northern regions experienced frequent and highly destructive rainstorms, while large-scale heatwaves persisted in the southern regions,” Dr Jia said.
“Nineteen national weather stations recorded daily maximum temperatures that either matched or exceeded historical records,” he added.
The record-breaking figures followed another report from the weather service on Sept 1 that average air temperatures in August in eight provinces, regions and cities “ranked the hottest for the same period” since records began.
They included the megacity of Shanghai, the provinces of Jiangsu, Hebei, Hainan, Jilin, Liaoning and Shandong as well as the north-west region of Xinjiang, the weather service said.
A further five provinces chalked up their second-hottest August, while seven more endured their third-hottest.
The Chinese weather authorities had also said July was the country’s hottest month since records began, state media reported, as extreme temperatures persist across large parts of the globe.
Extreme heat has seared much of East Asia this summer.
Japan also on Sept 2 said that its long-term average temperature between June and August was 1.76 deg C above the standard value – equalling the level seen in summer 2023 – the highest since statistics started being kept in 1898.
AFP
Summer 2024 hottest ever recorded,
Video by: Solange MOUGIN
Summer 2024 sweltered to Earth's hottest on record, making it even more likely that this year will end up as the warmest humanity has measured, European climate service Copernicus reported Friday.
And if this sounds familiar, that's because the records the globe shattered were set just last year as human-caused climate change, with a temporary boost from an El Nino, keeps dialing up temperatures and extreme weather, scientists said.
The northern meteorological summer — June, July and August — averaged 16.8 degrees Celsius (62.24 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Copernicus. That's 0.03 degrees Celsius (0.05 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the old record in 2023.
Copernicus records go back to 1940, but American, British and Japanese records, which start in the mid-19th century, show the last decade has been the hottest since regular measurements were taken and likely in about 120,000 years, according to some scientists.
EU climate change monitor says
Scientists have confirmed that summer 2024 broke global heat records for the second consecutive year, making 2024 likely to be the hottest year in recorded history. Data from Copernicus, Europe’s climate change service, shows June to August as the hottest period since records began in 1940.
Issued on: 06/09/2024 -
Scientists have confirmed that summer 2024 broke global heat records for the second consecutive year, making 2024 likely to be the hottest year in recorded history. Data from Copernicus, Europe’s climate change service, shows June to August as the hottest period since records began in 1940.
Issued on: 06/09/2024 -
01:43Cavalry Church in Woodland Hills, California, shows a temperature of 121 degrees Fahrenheit (49.4 degrees Celsius) on September 5, 2024.
© Frederic J. Brown, AFP
Video by: Solange MOUGIN
Summer 2024 sweltered to Earth's hottest on record, making it even more likely that this year will end up as the warmest humanity has measured, European climate service Copernicus reported Friday.
And if this sounds familiar, that's because the records the globe shattered were set just last year as human-caused climate change, with a temporary boost from an El Nino, keeps dialing up temperatures and extreme weather, scientists said.
The northern meteorological summer — June, July and August — averaged 16.8 degrees Celsius (62.24 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Copernicus. That's 0.03 degrees Celsius (0.05 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the old record in 2023.
Copernicus records go back to 1940, but American, British and Japanese records, which start in the mid-19th century, show the last decade has been the hottest since regular measurements were taken and likely in about 120,000 years, according to some scientists.
Tourists walk along the Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) on a hot summer day in Ronda, Spain on July 4, 2024. © Jon Nazca, Reuters
The Augusts of both 2024 and 2023 tied for the hottest Augusts globally at 16.82 degrees Celsius (62.27 degrees Fahrenheit). July was the first time in more than a year that the world did not set a record, a tad behind 2023, but because June 2024 was so much hotter than June 2023, this summer as a whole was the hottest, Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo said.
“What those sober numbers indicate is how the climate crisis is tightening its grip on us,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, who wasn't part of the research.
It's a sweaty grip because with the high temperatures, the dew point — one of several ways to measure the air's humidity — probably was at or near record high this summer for much of the world, Buontempo said.
Until last month Buontempo, like some other climate scientists, was on the fence over whether 2024 would smash the hottest year record set last year, mostly because August 2023 was so enormously hotter than average. But then this August 2024 matched 2023, making Buontempo “pretty certain” that this year will end up hottest on record.
“In order for 2024 not to become the warmest on record, we need to see very significant landscape cooling for the remaining few months, which doesn't look likely at this stage,” Buontempo said.
With a forecasted La Nina — a temporary natural cooling of parts of the central Pacific — the last four months of the year may no longer be record-setters like most of the past year and a half. But it's not likely cool enough to keep 2024 from breaking the annual record, Buontempo said.
These aren't just numbers in a record book, but weather that hurts people, climate scientists said.
“This all translates to more misery around the world as places like Phoenix start to feel like a barbecue locked on high for longer and longer stretches of the year,” said University of Michigan environment dean and climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck.
The Arizona city has had more than 100 days of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) weather this year.
The Augusts of both 2024 and 2023 tied for the hottest Augusts globally at 16.82 degrees Celsius (62.27 degrees Fahrenheit). July was the first time in more than a year that the world did not set a record, a tad behind 2023, but because June 2024 was so much hotter than June 2023, this summer as a whole was the hottest, Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo said.
“What those sober numbers indicate is how the climate crisis is tightening its grip on us,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, who wasn't part of the research.
It's a sweaty grip because with the high temperatures, the dew point — one of several ways to measure the air's humidity — probably was at or near record high this summer for much of the world, Buontempo said.
Until last month Buontempo, like some other climate scientists, was on the fence over whether 2024 would smash the hottest year record set last year, mostly because August 2023 was so enormously hotter than average. But then this August 2024 matched 2023, making Buontempo “pretty certain” that this year will end up hottest on record.
“In order for 2024 not to become the warmest on record, we need to see very significant landscape cooling for the remaining few months, which doesn't look likely at this stage,” Buontempo said.
With a forecasted La Nina — a temporary natural cooling of parts of the central Pacific — the last four months of the year may no longer be record-setters like most of the past year and a half. But it's not likely cool enough to keep 2024 from breaking the annual record, Buontempo said.
These aren't just numbers in a record book, but weather that hurts people, climate scientists said.
“This all translates to more misery around the world as places like Phoenix start to feel like a barbecue locked on high for longer and longer stretches of the year,” said University of Michigan environment dean and climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck.
The Arizona city has had more than 100 days of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) weather this year.
Men row a boat near a deluged straw hut in the river Ganges in Prayagraj: in India, just months after the country baked in its longest-ever heatwave, ferocious rainstorms have triggered widespread flooding and landslides © Sanjay KANOJIA / AFP
“With longer and more severe heat waves come more severe droughts in some places, and more intense rains and flooding in others. Climate change is becoming too obvious, and too costly, to ignore.”
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Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Cape Cod, said there's been a deluge of extreme weather of heat, floods, wildfires and high winds that are violent and dangerous.
“Like people living in a war zone with the constant thumping of bombs and clatter of guns, we are becoming deaf to what should be alarm bells and air-raid sirens,” Francis said in an email.
While a portion of last year's record heat was driven by an El Nino — a temporary natural warming of parts of the central Pacific that alters weather worldwide — that effect is gone, and it shows the main driver is long-term human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, Buontempo said.
“It's really not surprising that we see this, this heat wave, that we see these temperature extremes,” Buontempo said. “We are bound to see more.”
(AP)
“With longer and more severe heat waves come more severe droughts in some places, and more intense rains and flooding in others. Climate change is becoming too obvious, and too costly, to ignore.”
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morningSubscribe
Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Cape Cod, said there's been a deluge of extreme weather of heat, floods, wildfires and high winds that are violent and dangerous.
“Like people living in a war zone with the constant thumping of bombs and clatter of guns, we are becoming deaf to what should be alarm bells and air-raid sirens,” Francis said in an email.
While a portion of last year's record heat was driven by an El Nino — a temporary natural warming of parts of the central Pacific that alters weather worldwide — that effect is gone, and it shows the main driver is long-term human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, Buontempo said.
“It's really not surprising that we see this, this heat wave, that we see these temperature extremes,” Buontempo said. “We are bound to see more.”
(AP)
