The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service on Thursday marked July 2024 as the second-warmest July on record on the planet, breaking a 13-month period in which every month was the warmest.
Copernicus largely attributed the high temperatures to greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-based industries and noted that oceans not normally affected by El Niño experienced an unusual rise in temperatures. Reuters reported.
“This El Niño is over, but with this magnitude of global temperature increase, the overall picture is pretty similar to where we were a year ago,” said Julien Nicolas, a Copernicus climate researcher. Reuters Agency.
“We are not yet done with record-breaking temperatures that trigger heat waves… We know that this long-term warming trend can be linked, with high confidence, to human impacts on the climate,” he added.
According to a monthly report on Thursday, Copernicus highlighted that the month was 1.48°C above the pre-industrial baseline of 1850-1990, while the past 12 months were 1.64°C above the pre-industrial average due to climate change.
Southern and eastern Europe, the western United States and Canada, most of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and eastern Europe recorded above-average temperatures throughout the month, according to sources.
In addition, near-average or below-average temperatures were recorded in northwestern Europe, western Antarctica, parts of the United States, South America and Australia.
The seventh month of 2024 is reported to be wetter than average in northern Europe and southern Turkey, while drought warnings persisted in southern and eastern Europe.
In early 2022 and 2023, Arctic sea ice declined more than 7% below average, although not as severe as the record 14% drop in 2020.
Global sea temperatures remain at near-record highs, with July just 0.1°C below last year's July, ending a streak of 15 consecutive months of new records.
