Global temperatures have broken records for the second consecutive year, and several government agencies said Friday that last year was the hottest on record.
2024 was hotter than any year since at least 1880, according to scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA. 2023 was previously dubbed the warmest year on record for the world.
According to NOAA, average land and ocean surface temperatures last year exceeded the 2023 standard by less than two tenths of a degree Fahrenheit.
The consecutive shattered records are a part of a continuing warming trend that was forecast by several 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.
In 2024, temperatures were warmer than average in nearly every part of the world, but there were significant regional variations. 2024 was the warmest year on record for North America, Europe, Africa, and South America, and the second-warmest year on record for Asia and the Arctic.
Nonetheless, the general warming trend is evident. According to NOAA, the last ten years have been the hottest on record since 1850.
After a year filled with extremes, the new record is not shocking. NASA scientists referred to the 15 consecutive months of monthly temperature records the planet recorded from June 2023 to August 2024 as an unparalleled heat streak.
In actuality, the warming pattern you observe closely resembles what models have long projected, and we are now able to observe During a news briefing on Friday, Gavin Schmidt, the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, stated
El Ni o, a natural climatic phenomena marked by warmer-than-normal seas in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, contributed to the 2024 hot streak.El Ni usually exacerbates the warming induced by human-driven climate change, increasing the likelihood and severity of temperature extremes.
Russell Vose, head of the monitoring and assessment department at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, stated that last year saw several really noteworthy severe heat events.
For example, a severe heat wave in May and June killed over 100 people in Mexico. Additionally, Phoenix, Arizona, recorded a record 113 consecutive days with triple-digit high temperatures last year. In 1993, the previous record of 76 days in a row was established.
Regarding Phoenix, Vose remarked, “I used to live out there.” Thirty years ago, things were different.
The effects of this warming have become obvious: Climate change has exacerbated heat waves on all continents, exacerbated drought in already arid regions of the world, bolstered hurricanes and storms, and stoked fatal wildfires in recent years.
In the greater Los Angeles area, fires were burning out of control even as the results were revealed on Friday.
Regarding his studies on global temperature patterns, Schmidt stated, “This is no longer an esoteric, academic exercise for us.” This has become quite personal.
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service of the European Union, which verified the record on Friday, 2024 was the first complete year in which global temperatures rose more than 1.5 degrees Celsius beyond preindustrial levels.
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 preindustrial levels in the historic 2015 Paris Agreement.
With the return of La Ni a, El Ni o’s counterpart, in 2025, record-breaking warmth may subside, according to NOAA and NASA experts. The eastern tropical Pacific Ocean cools during La Niña, causing atmospheric reverberations that have a significant impact on global weather.
According to Vose, initial estimates indicate that the likelihood of 2025 surpassing 2024 as the warmest year on record is 5% or less. According to him, there is a 95% possibility that it will still be among the top five.
There might be surprises in store, though.
It’s difficult to predict global temperatures, as we stated at this time last year that there was just a one in three possibility that 2024 will be the warmest year on record, according to Vose.