For eight consecutive months until January, the Earth set a new record for high temperatures, according to the European climate agency.
This was evident in the northern United States, where about 1,000 people came out to play golf in Minnesota, a state that received less snow than usual this year and where its residents speak of the “lost winter of 2023-24.”
Global temperatures exceeded the internationally agreed warming threshold for the first time over an entire 12-month period.
Between February 2023 and January 2024, temperatures were 1.52 degrees Celsius (2.74 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial levels, according to the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. It is the highest global average temperature for a 12-month period on record, Copernicus reported.
The planet has hit new heat records every month since last June.
“Record month.?️
“Again.
“For the eighth time in a row.?
“Last month was the warmest January on record.
“The global average temperatures ? of the last 12 months are the highest on record, 1.52°C above the pre-industrial average,” reads a message on social networks from the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Record breaking month.?️
Again.
For the 8th time in a row.?
Last month was the warmest January on record.
Global ? mean temperatures for the past 12 months are the highest recorded, 1.52°C above the pre-industrial average.
Full @CopernicusEU news⤵️ pic.twitter.com/Ip3A1Jmd58
— EU Climate Action (@EUClimateAction) February 8, 2024
January 2024 broke the previous record of 2020 for the hottest first month of the year by 0.12ºC (0.22ºF), and the temperature was 1.66ºC (3ºF) warmer than at the end of the 19th century, the temperature parameter before humanity began to consume fossil fuels. Although heat reached historic levels during January, the level above the norm was lower than in the last six months, according to Copernicus data.
Climatologists attribute the record high temperatures to a combination of warming caused by human consumption of fossil fuels and the presence of El Niño, a natural but temporary warming of parts of the Pacific, and say the presence of greenhouse gases greenhouse has a much greater role than nature.
This is the time of year when El Niño warming typically peaks, said Andrew Dessler, a climatologist at Texas A&M University.
“This is disturbing and at the same time it’s not. After all, if you stick your finger in an outlet and get shocked, it’s certainly bad news, but what did you expect?” Dessler said.
The fact that the planet has surpassed the 1.5 degree warming threshold for 12 months is not what scientists are referring to when they talk about reaching the 1.5 degree warming limit, said Natalie Mahowald, a climatologist at Cornell University and co-author of a United Nations scientific report on the risks of exceeding 1.5 degrees. That threshold, implemented in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, refers to averages over 30 years.
“This goes far beyond numbers, ranges and records… it translates into real effects on our farms, families and communities due to unprecedented heat, changes in growing seasons and rising sea levels,” said Kathie Dello, a climatologist at North Carolina State University.
