Very sad record for 2024: for the first time, as expectedthe global temperature of the Earth has exceeded by 1.5°C the pre-industrial one. It goes without saying that it was the warmest year since scientific measurements began (1850), but this “result” could really be the point of no return.
The data is reported in Global Climate Highlights Report 2024 of Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) of the EU implemented by European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
THE’Paris Agreementsigned at the end of the 2016 Climate Conference, aimed precisely at keeping the increase in global surface temperature well below 2 °C compared to pre-industrial levels, and preferably at 1.5 °C.
To be fair, the target refers to an average of at least 20 years, so one calendar year does not mean that the target has been missed. But it is certainly a really bad sign, as already reported “No more hot air… please!” (“No more hot air, please!”), the UNEP Report on greenhouse gas emissions published at the end of October 2024.
As reported (also) by the ECMWF, the Human-induced climate change remains the main driver of the increase in air and sea surface temperatures, while other factors, such as El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), contributed to the unusual temperatures observed during the year.
Record global temperatures
2024 was the warmest year in global temperature records since 1850: specifically, the global average surface air temperature of 15.10°C was 0.72°C, according to ECMWF reanalysis higher than the 1991-2020 average and 0.12°C higher than 2023, the previous warmest year on record.
This is equivalent to 1.60 °C higher to an estimate of the temperature 1850-1900, which is designated as the pre-industrial level.
Focus Europe
2024 was also thehottest year on record for Europe, with an average temperature of 10.69 °C, corresponding to 1.47 °C higher than the average of the reference period 1991-2020 and 0.28 °C higher than the previous record, set in 2020.
Spring and summer were the warmest ever recorded for our continent: the average temperature of the spring months (March-May) was 1.50 °C higher than the seasonal average 1991-2020, and the temperature summer average (June-August) 1.54 °C higher than the 1991-2020 seasonal average.
Focus poly
Around Antarctica, after the minimum values recorded in much of 2023, sea ice extent has again reached record or near-record low values for several months of 2024. From June to October, it ranked second lowest, behind 2023, and lowest in November. At its annual low in February, it ranked third lowest in the satellite record.
In the Arctic, however, sea ice extent was relatively close to its 1991-2020 average through June, but fell well below average in the following months. At its annual low in September, the monthly extent ranked fifth lowest in the satellite record.
Anomalous surface air temperatures
Global surface air temperatures have increased since the pre-industrial baseline, and every month from January to June 2024 was warmer than the corresponding month in any previous year on record.
Anomalous sea surface temperatures
In 2024, the annual average sea surface temperature of the extrapolar ocean reached a record maximum of 20.87 °C0.51 °C higher than the 1991-2020 average.
The year saw the end of the event El Niño started in 2023 and the transition to more neutral conditions or La Nina. Please note that an event El Niño is a prolonged period of unusually high SST in the tropical Pacific Ocean that goes hand in hand with changes in atmospheric conditions and may have strong repercussions on global weather patterns.
We don’t want to say that there is nothing left to do now, but man is really doing everything to ensure that this sad epilogue is reached, with the latest COP29 Climate Conference which ended with almost nothing.
Hope is the last to die, but now it really is in agony.
Sources: ECMWF / Copernicus
