Earth has just experienced its 11th straight warmest month on record, setting the stage for a scorching summer ahead, scientists warn. According to a monthly climate report by Copernicus, Europe’s climate change service, April 2024 marked the warmest April on record, with an average surface air temperature of 15.03 degrees Celsius (59.05 degrees Fahrenheit). This temperature was 1.21 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1991 to 2020 average for April.
May 2023 through April 2024 was recorded as the warmest 12-month stretch on record, with a global average temperature of 2.90 degrees Fahrenheit above the pre-industrial average. Global sea surface temperatures remained at unusually high levels in April 2024, reaching the highest value on record for April.
As the planet continues to heat, the United States braces for a brutal summer. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s seasonal outlook predicts above-average temperatures for much of the country between June and August. The first heat wave of the year is already underway in parts of the South, with blistering temperatures expected from Texas to Florida throughout much of the week.
The relentless stretch of new global temperature records is attributed to El Niño conditions over the equatorial eastern Pacific and greenhouse gas emissions. While El Niño conditions are fading, the warming effects are expected to persist for months, contributing to record-breaking temperatures around the globe.
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Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, emphasized that human-amplified global warming is exacerbating normal climate variations, pushing the planet towards new temperature records. While such a lengthy stretch of monthly global temperature records is unusual, similar patterns were documented in 2015 and 2016, also El Niño years.