January 2024 was the world's warmest on record
What's the story
January 2024 was the hottest January ever recorded, with global temperatures reaching 1.66°C above pre-industrial levels, a monitoring agency said on Thursday.
January 2024 also marked the eighth straight month of record-high temperatures, according to a report by European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service
To be sure, 2023 was the hottest year on record, and experts are already predicting 2024 will beat 2023's extremely high temperatures.
Context
Why does this story matter?
In 2015, global leaders signed the Paris Climate Accord, pledging to limit the global temperature rise below 2°C this century.
While temperatures have surpassed 1.5°C in a year, the target remains unbroken.
However, experts have warned that with a meteoric rise in greenhouse emissions, the threshold could be crossed soon.
In the aforementioned report, experts have said that "rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions" are the only way to the check rise of global temperatures.
What the report says
Regional impacts and unprecedented temperatures
In its report, the agency pointed out that temperatures in southern Europe, eastern Canada, northwestern Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia were much higher than the average of the past 30 years.
Spain experienced its warmest January since 1961, with an average temperature of 8.4°C.
On the other hand, Europe grappled with severe cold and snowstorms, resulting in transportation disruptions and school closures in Scandinavia, while Western Europe faced flooding due to strong winds and heavy rain.
Twitter Post
Read the report here
🌍🌡️2023 is confirmed as the warmest calendar year on record, with a global average temperature of 14.98°C, 0.60°C above the 1991-2020 level, overtaking 2016, the previous warmest year.
— Copernicus ECMWF (@CopernicusECMWF) January 9, 2024
Learn more in the #C3S Global Climate Highlights report 👉 https://t.co/i7ZDNIrPvj pic.twitter.com/rwSzdfpclP
Weather phenomemon
El Niño and rising sea surface temperatures
This January 2024 record surpasses the previous milestone set in January 2020, continuing a trend of rising temperatures attributed to both human-induced climate change and natural weather patterns like El Niño.
It is expected that El Niño will potentially lead to a rise in temperature in 2024 as well.
Notably, El Niño's weakening in the equatorial Pacific hasn't curbed unusually high marine air temperatures.
January saw a peak in global sea surface temperatures, with daily temperatures rising even in February.