The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reported on Wednesday that April was yet another remarkable month with record-breaking worldwide air and sea surface temperature averages.
The exceptionally warm circumstances occurred despite the continuous weakening of the El Nino weather phenomenon, which adds to increasing heat, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, blaming human-caused climate change for exacerbating the extremes.
Since June of last year, every month has been the warmest on record.
April 2024 was no exception, with temperatures 1.58 degrees Celsius higher than the pre-industrial average from 1850 to 1900.
Copernicus remarked, “While unusual, a similar streak of monthly global temperature records happened previously in 2015/16”.
The average temperature over the last 12 months has also risen by 1.6C above pre-industrial levels, surpassing the 1.5C target set by the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming.
The anomaly does not imply that the Paris objective has been missed, given it is computed across several decades.
Last month was the second warmest April on recorded in Europe, as was March and the entire winter season.
Recent hot waves in Asia from India to Vietnam, as well as severe flooding in southern Brazil, are examples of diverging extremes.
“Each additional degree of global warming is accompanied by extreme weather events, which are both more intense and more likely”, Copernicus climatologist Julien Nicolas remarked.
In April, the world was hit by a slew of extreme weather events, including flooding and droughts.
Copernicus reported that much of Europe saw a wetter April than typical, with southern Spain, Italy, and the western Balkans being drier than average.
Heavy rain caused floods in regions of North America, Central Asia, and the Persian Gulf.
While eastern Australia received substantial rains, the rest of the country, as well as northern Mexico and the Caspian Sea had drier-than-normal weather.
“The natural El Nino pattern, which warms the Pacific Ocean and leads to a rise in global temperatures, peaked earlier this year and was headed towards ‘neutral condition’ in April”, Copernicus continued.
The end of El Nino does not indicate the end of high temperatures.
In a statement, Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo stated, “The extra energy trapped into the ocean and the atmosphere by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases will keep pushing the global temperature towards new records”.
The United Nations warned in March that there was a high probability that 2024 would witness record temperatures, while 2023 capped a decade of record heat, pushing the planet to the brink.
Nicolas went on to say that it was still a little early to predict whether new records would continue to be broken, considering that 2023 was exceptional.
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