Last month brought an end to more than a year of record-breaking temperatures across the world. However, two of the hottest days ever were recorded in July, highlighting that global warming continues.
July 2024 was both the second-warmest July – it was 1.48°C above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900) – and the second-warmest month ever globally. This marks the end of a 13-month period during which each month was the warmest for the respective month of the year, and the end of a series of 12 consecutive months at or above 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, EU's Climate Service Copernicus reported.
"The streak of record-breaking months has come to an end, but only by a whisker," said Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The average temperature was, in fact, only 0.04°C lower than the previous high set in July 2023.
"This means that globally, July 2024 was almost as warm as July 2023, the hottest month on record."
2024 like hottest year on record
Although last month was just short of being as warm as July 2023, it did see Earth's two hottest days since records began: the daily global average temperature reached 17.16°C and 17.15°C on 22 and 23 July.
Meanwhile, in the past year, the global average temperature was 1.64°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average, higher than the aim set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement of keeping global warming below 1.5°C. Even at this level of warming, people will experience an increased risk of extreme heat, stresses on food production and access to water, and more insect-borne diseases.
Between January and July, the average anomaly was 0.27°C warmer than the same period in 2023. This would need to drop by at least 0.23°C in the next months for 2024 not to be warmer than 2023. "This rarely happened in the entire dataset, making it increasingly likely that 2024 is going to be the warmest year on record," Burgess said.
In Europe, July 2024 was 1.49°C above the 1991-2020 average for the month, making it the second warmest July on record for Europe, after July 2010.
Burgess said this shows that the overall context hasn’t changed. "Our climate continues to warm. The devastating effects of climate change started well before 2023 and will continue until global greenhouse gas emissions reach net zero."
