PARIS: Last month was the hottest June on record worldwide, the EU climate monitor said on Monday, capping half a year of wild and destructive weather, from floods to heatwaves.
Since June 2023, every month has eclipsed its own temperature record in a 13-month streak of unprecedented global heat, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). “This is more than a statistical oddity and highlights a broad and ongoing change in our climate,” said the service’s director Carlo Buontempo.
“Even if this streak of extremes ends at some point, it is inevitable that we will see new records as the climate continues to warm,” he said. This was “inevitable” as long as humanity continued to add heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere, he added.
The global average temperature recorded last month broke the previous record, set in June 2023. The new high came in the middle of a year marked by extreme weather events.
In the first half of this year, scorching heat has blanketed parts of the world from India to Saudi Arabia, the United States and Mexico. Incessant rains, a phenomenon that scientists have also linked to global warming, caused massive flooding in Kenya, China, Brazil, Afghanistan, Russia and France.
Wildfires have scorched land in Greece and Canada and last week, Hurricane Beryl became the earliest Category 5 Atlantic hurricane on record as it swept through several Caribbean islands.
Warmer oceans
The streak of record temperatures coincided with El Niño, a natural phenomenon that contributes to warmer weather globally, said Julien Nicolas, a senior scientist at C3S.
“That was part of the factors behind the temperature records, but it was not the only one,” he said. Ocean temperatures have also reached new highs.
Record sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic, North Pacific and Indian Ocean also contributed to rising temperatures around the world. Sea surface temperatures reached another milestone in June: 15 consecutive months of new highs, a development Nicolas described as “amazing.”
Oceans cover 70% of the Earth's surface and absorb 90% of the additional heat associated with increased emissions that cause global warming. “What happens at the ocean surface has a major impact on surface air temperature and also on global average temperature,” he said.
However, the world is about to enter a La Niña phase, which has a cooling effect. “We can expect global (air) temperatures to gradually drop in the coming months,” Nicolas said.
“If these record-high (sea surface) temperatures persist, even as La Niña conditions develop, that could lead to 2024 being warmer than 2023. But it is too early to say,” he added. Global air temperatures in the 12 months to June 2024 were the highest on record – on average 1.64C above pre-industrial levels, Copernicus said.
