NASA said Friday that global temperatures broke records for the second consecutive year, making last year the hottest on record.
According to the agency’s analysis, 2024 had the highest temperatures since at least 1880. 2023 was previously dubbed the warmest year on record for the world.
The consecutive milestones are a part of a continuing warming trajectory that has been foreseen by many climate models and about which climate experts have long warned.
The temperature record has been broken once more. According to a statement from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, 2024 was the hottest year since records have been kept since 1880. Understanding our changing globe is more critical than ever, especially in light of the record-breaking heat and the ongoing wildfires that endanger our California hubs and workers.
Earth was 2.65 degrees Fahrenheit (1.47 degrees Celsius) hotter in 2024 than it was on average during the mid-19th century, which spanned 1850 to 1900, according to NASA scientists.
After a year filled with extremes, the new record is not shocking. NASA scientists described the planet’s 15 consecutive months of monthly temperature records from June 2023 to August 2024 as an unparalleled heat streak.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service of the European Union verified the record on Friday, declaring that 2024 was the first full year where global temperatures above 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, based on its study.
In order to prevent the most disastrous effects of climate change, nations committed to keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) beyond pre-industrial levels in the historic 2015 Paris Agreement.