Because of the greenhouse gases released by mankind global temperature records continue to be broken for over a year now: June 2024 was the hottest month on record, breaking the record set for the corresponding month in 2023.
With a series of heat waves from Mexico to China to Saudi Arabia, June 2024 was the thirteenth month in a row with record average temperatures, according to data released by the European Copernicus Observatory today.
With this record streak fueled by the unprecedented warming of the oceans, which absorb 90% of excess heat as a result of human activity, “average global temperatures over the last 12 months (July 2023-2024) are the hottest ever recorded. was recorded,” said the Climate Change Service (C3S) of the Copernicus Observatory.
During this period, from 1850 to 1900, when deforestation and the burning of coal, gas and oil had not yet caused global warming, the average temperature was “1.64°C above the pre-industrial average”.
June 2024 is also “the 12th consecutive month that the pre-industrial average has increased by more than 1.5 °C,” said Carlo Buodembo, director of C3S.
According to APE, the 1.5°C limit is the most ambitious goal of the Paris climate agreement (2015), which almost all countries have signed. But to consider that the climate has stabilized at this level, this anomaly must be recorded for several decades.
Although temperatures have already risen by about 1.2°C compared to the 1850-1900 period, the GIEC – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – predicts a 50-50 chance of exceeding that threshold by 2030-2035 at the current rate of emissions. It is expected to peak in 2025.
In June, while the thermometer was near or below normal for the season (1991-2020), most people in France and Western Europe experienced warmer temperatures, and in some cases extremely hot.
In addition, more than 1,300 people died in Saudi Arabia during the Great Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, as the temperature even reached 51.8° Celsius in the great mosque of the Islamic holy city.
The Acropolis had to be closed in mid-June as temperatures exceeded 44°C in Greece. In China, temperatures exceeded 40°C in the north, including Beijing, and floods hit the south.
Kenya, Afghanistan and France have also experienced devastating floods, another phenomenon that is intensifying internationally due to global warming, as the maximum moisture in the atmosphere and thus the potential intensity of rainfall increases.
The World Weather Attribution (WWA) scientific reporting network estimates that deadly heat waves in the United States and Mexico in late May and early June have increased 35-fold due to climate change.
On the fire front, in the Amazon, which is enduring a historic drought, June ended the worst six months in 20 years in terms of the number of outbreaks, with Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul region declaring a “state of emergency”.
Another consequence of the heat waves: the people of the Balkans, Pakistan and Egypt faced widespread power cuts, which became synonymous with the fact that essential appliances did not work: ventilation systems, fans, air conditioners, refrigerators…
C3S scientist Julien Nicolas told AFP that the cyclical La Nina climate phenomenon, synonymous with lower global temperatures, is expected to occur by the end of the year, “we can expect a decrease in global temperatures in the coming months”.
By the end of 2024, global temperatures will depend largely on the evolution of heat levels in the oceans, which cover 70% of the planet’s surface and whose surface water temperatures have been at an all-time high for more than a year.
The highly unusual surface warmth of the North Atlantic has thus fueled the powerful Cyclone Beryl, which has been wreaking havoc in the Antilles since July. It has left at least seven dead in the Caribbean and Venezuela and is now threatening the US state of Texas.
“If record temperatures continue despite the La Nina event, 2024 could be hotter than 2023, the hottest year on record,” Julien said.