A leading climate scientist said he was surprised to see “extraordinary” global temperatures break the record after last year’s records.
The United Nations World Weather Organization (WMO) confirmed 2024 as the hottest year on record as it released the flagship status of its global climate report on Wednesday.
The agency said global temperatures are about 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels, surpassing record heat in 2023.
Exceptional
Scientists said this, driven primarily by a continuous increase in planetary-acquiring emissions, was linked to the weather phenomenon of El Nino, a warming Pacific Ocean.
Last year, the country first violated a critical 1.5C threshold that it promised to limit dangerous global warming, but the WMO said this does not mean the world has failed to meet its long-term goals.
Instead, scientists point out that it is within the range of uncertainty in global temperature statistics, but said long-term warming is currently estimated between 1.34 and 1.41C compared to the baseline of the 1850-1900.
Dr. John Kennedy, co-chair of the WMO climate monitoring team, said he was “surprised” by the record-breaking magnitude over the past two years.
“With world temperatures come in detail every month, the record warm months, warmth through 2023, have seen the warmest warm month or the second warm month of that period.”
Warning
Dr. Kennedy said that temperatures were rising due to El Niño, but this trend continues even as the world moved to Lanina, a more cooling spell. “It was truly extraordinary to see the warmth lasting for so long,” he added.
A companion of WMO scientist Omar Baddour said he doesn’t remember seeing such a series of monthly record-breaking pieces and calling 2023 and 2024 “very unique in that aspect.” “It’s not just every year, but every month, sometimes every day,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chris Hewitt, director of WMO’s Climate Services Branch, emphasized that the past decade has all been a warm record in the top 10. “It’s never happened before,” he said.
WMO oceanographer Karina von Schuckmann said he was “concerned” seeing ocean warming and sea level rise not only reaching new highs, but also accelerating at record rates, but said temperatures did not fall as expected by the end of 2024.
Professor Hewitt said that it challenged the planets that had changed climate for thousands of years to the extent that warming was induced by humans.
“Of course, the climate is constantly changing, but that’s not the message shown here,” he warned that temperature, sea level and ice changes were occurring at “amazing speeds.”
Wildfires
