The year 2024 was the hottest on record, with an average temperature of 1.55° Celsius (2.79° Fahrenheit) higher than pre-industrial levels, surpassing the previous record set in 2023, according to six international data sets.
Scientists caution that the data represent the average for the Earth’s year-round weather and don’t mean that the climate has exceeded the Paris Agreement threshold of 1.5°C (2.7°F). For the latter, a longer data set spanning decades is needed.
Still, 2024 was the first year in recorded history when the average global temperature surpassed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, raising alarms about the persistent increase in Earth’s warming. Every month from January to June last year was the warmest on record for those months.
The average global temperature reached 15.1°C (59.2°F), exceeding the 2023 average by 0.12°C (0.22°F), data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts showed.
“We are facing a very new climate and new challenges, challenges that our society is not prepared for,” Carlo Buontempo, director of the European Union’s Copernicus weather institute told The New York Times.
Climate change, largely attributed to human activities, fueled some of the worst extreme weather events on record in 2024, claiming at least 11,500 lives and impacting more than 148 million people globally.
Following the disastrous floods in Spain in October, researchers found that climate change had increased the amount of rain that the clouds over Spain can carry by 7% for every 1°C (1.8°F) of warming.
Meanwhile, the extreme drought conditions in the Amazon Rainforest spanning 2023 and 2024 were made 30 times more likely due to climate change.
“Nearly every event we studied in 2024, was made more intense and more frequent because of our continued burning of fossil fuels,” researchers wrote in a recent World Weather Attribution (WWA)
As temperatures rose, greenhouse gas concentrations also climbed for another consecutive year. Carbon dioxide hit a new record average of 422.1 parts per million (ppm), far above the pre-industrial level of 280 ppm.
Scientists warn that the Paris Agreement’s goal to keep global warming below 1.5°C over the long term, a critical threshold to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, is likely to be exceeded
“All of the internationally produced global temperature datasets show that 2024 was the hottest year since records began in 1850,” Buentempo said in a statement. “The future is in our hands — swift and decisive action can still alter the trajectory of our future climate.”
Banner image: In 2024, the average global temperature reached its highest level since records began in 1850. Image courtesy of C3S/ECMWF.
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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