Copernicus: Hottest Summer on Record

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The European Copernicus observatory announced today that the average global temperature for the three months of summer (June, July, August) was the highest on record, breaking the record set in 2023.

“In the last three months, the globe has seen its hottest June and hottest August on record, its hottest day on record, and its hottest summer on record,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), summed up with alarm in a press release released to the public.

“This record-breaking sequence increases the likelihood that 2024 will be the warmest year on record,” surpassing the previous record set last year, she added, due to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases emitted by human activities.

Countries with Record High Temperatures in August

This week, countries including Spain, India, Japan, Australia (in the depths of the Southern Hemisphere winter), and provinces in China have announced that they have recorded cases in August. record high temperatures.

Globally, August 2024 equalled the record temperature for the corresponding month of any year, set in 2023, which is 1.51°C above the pre-industrial average (1850-1900), i.e. above the 1.5°C limit that was the most ambitious goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

According to data from the Copernicus Institute (which differs slightly from similar agencies in the US, Japan and the UK), this limit has been exceeded in 13 of the last 14 months.

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2024 – a record year for temperature

According to the same source, the average temperature over the last ten months has been 1.64°C higher than in the pre-industrial period. 2023 ended with an average global temperature of 1.48°C, and 2024, which has been marked by heat waves, droughts and extreme floods, has a high chance of being the year when the limit is exceeded.

However, this anomaly would need to persist for decades to be considered as a climate that is currently thought to be about 1.2°C above pre-industrial times now stabilising at above 1.5°C.

The Copernicus Institute's records go back to 1940, and scientists say this summer's average temperature was unprecedented for at least 120,000 years, based on paleoclimatological data taken mainly from ice sheets and sediments.

The world's heat records are being driven by unprecedented warming of the oceans, which cover 70% of the Earth's surface – bodies of water that absorb 90% of excess heat caused by human activity: average sea surface temperatures have been well above normal since May 2023, making events such as cyclones much more severe.

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