Last month was slightly warmer than the record-breaking July of 2023. Worldwide, the average temperature in July 2024 was 16.91 degrees. That’s 0.04 degrees below the record set a year earlier.
In July, Copernicus recorded the two warmest days since the start of the measurement series in 1940. On July 22, the average temperature on Earth rose to a previously unmeasured 17.16 degrees. The next day, an average of 17.15 degrees was measured. Because the difference is so small, it falls within the margin of error of the measurements and climate scientists are hesitant to say with absolute certainty which of the two days was actually the warmest.
Many monthly records are rare.
“The streak of record months has come to an end, but only just,” says Samantha Burgess, Copernicus Deputy Director. “Globally, July 2024 was almost as warm as July 2023, the warmest month ever recorded.” Meanwhile, global warming continues and will not change until the world stops emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, she adds.
Such a long series of monthly records is extremely rare, but it has happened before. Monthly temperature records were also set in 2015 and 2016. Like last year, there was a strong El Niño, a complex climate phenomenon that occurs every few years and temporarily pushes temperatures even higher.
According to the latest monthly figures, July was 1.48 degrees warmer on Earth than in the second half of the 19th century. This 1.5 degree limit is important because, according to climate scientists, above this limit the risk of disruptive effects of climate change increases considerably. The Paris Climate Agreement and several subsequent international climate agreements include the goal of keeping warming below this limit and at least well below 2 degrees.
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