And yet another climate record: April 2024 was the eleventh month in a row that was warmer than all of the months measured in the previous year. It was also the first recorded April with a global average temperature above 15 degrees, according to data from the EU climate change service Copernicus.
According to Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo, increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases will “continue to push global temperatures toward new record levels.” The surface air temperature averaged 15.03 degrees in April, 0.67 degrees higher than the April average from 1991 to 2020, the service said.
Europe is heating up the fastest
In Europe, April was even 1.49 degrees warmer than in the same period. This is not unusual: Europe is heating up the fastest of all continents, according to the European Environment Agency (EEA). Compared to the period 1850 to 1900, the pre-industrial reference period, the month was 1.58 degrees warmer globally, it said.
The global average temperature for the past twelve months (May 2023 to April 2024) is the highest on record and is 1.61 degrees above the pre-industrial average. However, that does not mean that the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Agreement has been missed, as longer-term average values are taken into account. If the temperature trend of the past 30 years continues, this will happen in 2033, Copernicus recently wrote.
The European Union’s climate change service Copernicus regularly publishes data on surface temperatures, sea ice cover and precipitation. The findings are based on computer-generated analyzes that incorporate billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world. The data used goes back to 1950, and some earlier data is also available.
