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Agence France-Presse

It is “increasingly likely” 2024 will be the hottest year on record, despite July ending a 13-month streak of monthly temperature records, the EU’s climate monitor said Thursday.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said last month was the second warmest on record books going back to 1940, only slightly cooler than July 2023.
Between June 2023 and June 2024, each month eclipsed its own temperature record for the time of year.
“The streak of record-breaking months has come to an end, but only by a whisker,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of C3S.

Last month, the global average temperature was 16.91 degrees Celsius (62.4 degrees Fahrenheit), only 0.04 degree below July 2023, according to C3S’s monthly bulletin.
But the “overall context has not changed, our climate continues to warm”, Burgess said.
“The devastating effects of climate change started well before 2023 and will continue until global greenhouse gas emissions reach net zero,” she said.
From January to July, global temperatures were 0.7 degree above the 1991-2020 average.
This anomaly would need to drop significantly over the rest of this year for 2024 not to be hotter than 2023 – “making it increasingly likely that 2024 is going to be the warmest year on record”, C3S said.


Last month was 1.48 degrees warmer than the estimated average temperatures for July during 1850-1900, before the world started to rapidly burn fossil fuels.
This has translated into punishing heat for hundreds of millions of people.
The Earth experienced its two hottest days on record with global average temperatures at a virtual tie on July 22 and 23 reaching 17.6 degrees, C3S said.
The Mediterranean was gripped by a heatwave scientists said would have been “virtually impossible” without global warming as China and Japan sweated through their hottest July on record.
Record-breaking rainfall pummelled Pakistan, wildfires ravaged western US states and Hurricane Beryl left a trail of destruction as it swept from the Caribbean to the southeast of the United States.
“The end of record-breaking monthly temperatures is not cause for celebration,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at London’s Imperial College.

Otto described the heat-related deaths of 21 people in a single day in Morocco in July as a “shocking illustration of just how deadly extreme heat can be”.
“To stop climate change, we need to stop burning fossil fuels, stop deforestation and replace them with renewable energy. We have all the technology and know-how to do that … We just lack the political will,” she said.
Temperatures for the oceans, which absorb 90 per cent of the excess heat caused by human activities, were also the second warmest on record for the month of July.
Average sea surface temperatures were 20.88 degrees last month, only 0.01 degree below July 2023.
This marked the end of a 15-month period of tumbling heat records for the oceans.
However, scientists at C3S noted that “air temperatures over the ocean remained unusually high over many regions” despite a swing from the El Nino weather pattern that helped fuel a spike in global temperatures to its opposite La Nina, which has a cooling effect.
On Wednesday, World Meteorological Organization Secretary General Celeste Saulo reflected on a year of “widespread, intense and extended heatwaves”.
“This is becoming too hot to handle,” she said.


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Extreme weather

2024 ‘increasingly likely’ to be warmest on record: EU monitor

Tourists at the Parthenon in central Athens in June, which was the hottest June on record according to Europe’s Copernicus climate service. Photo: AP

People try to cool themselves off at the fountain at the Plaza de España in Seville on July 23. Photo: AFP

A cyclist close to a thermometer that reads 45 degrees Celsius in Seville on July 23. Photo: AFP

World registers hottest day ever recorded on July 21, highlighting global warming challenges

The world recorded its hottest ever day on Sunday, according to European weather monitors. Photo: Shutterstock

A woman uses a fan as she walks with her companion on a hot day in Beijing. Photo: AP

Tourists with an umbrella walk in front of the Parthenon at the ancient Acropolis in central Athens. Photo: AP

World breaks record for hottest day ever for second day in a row

The setting sun illuminates the clouds over the Rocky Mountains. The World set a milestone for hottest day ever recorded for the second straight day. Photo: AP

A member of the Hellenic Red Cross distributes a bottle of water to tourists at the Acropolis site in Athens as the season’s earliest-ever heatwave swept the country. Photo: AFP

Passers-by holding umbrellas walk under a strong sunlight in Tokyo, as the Japanese government issued heatstroke alerts in 39 of the country’s 47 prefectures. Photo: Reuters

An Iranian taxi driver splashes water on himself to cool down during a heat wave in Tehran. Photo: Reuters

Calls to charity for elderly hit 1,620 a day as Hong Kong logs record heat high on Monday

One young Hongkonger cools off in a pool in Central as the city records its highest temperature of the year. Photo: Eugene Lee

A thermometer at a Fanling park hits close to 39 degrees at about 4pm on Monday. Photo: Eugene Lee

Keeping cool in the pool at Hong Kong Park in Central on Monday. Photo: Eugene Lee

Asia needs urgent help to turn the tide on ocean heatwaves

Screen capture of SCMP video of corals and livelihoods under threat in Gulf of Thailand due to soaring water surface temperatures, which reached record highs in the Gulf of Thailand last month amid a regional heatwave.

https://www.scmp.com/video/environment/3265277/global-boiling-threatening-corals-and-livelihoods-gulf-thailand?utm_source=scmp&utm_medium=qr&utm_content=print&utm_campaign=editorial-print-qr

Bleached corals in the Gulf of Thailand after water surface temperatures hit record highs last month amid a regional heatwave. Photo: SCMP video screengrab

News

World

Earth experienced its two hottest days on record with global average temperatures at a virtual tie on July 22 and 23 reaching 17.6 degrees


Between June 2023 and June 2024, each month eclipsed its own temperature record for the time of year.


Climate change

Weather

Environment