Global temperatures in 2024 surpassed the heat record set in 2023 and were 1.28 degrees Celsius above records from the NASA of the 20th century (1951-1980).
The US federal agency reported yesterday that the Earth’s surface temperature last year was the warmest on record.
The new parameter comes after 15 consecutive months (June 2023 to August 2024) of monthly temperature records, a streak of unprecedented heat.
“Once again, the temperature record has been broken: 2024 was the hottest year since records began in 1880,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
“Between record temperatures and forest fires currently threatening our California centers and workforce, it has never been more important to understand our changing planet,” he added.
Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, said: “Not every year will break records, but the long-term trend is clear.”
“We are already seeing the impact in extreme rainfall, heatwaves and increased risk of flooding, which will continue to worsen as emissions continue.”
For more than half of 2024, average temperatures were more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the baseline, and the annual average, with mathematical uncertainties, may have exceeded the level for the first time.
“The Paris Agreement on climate change establishes efforts to remain below 1.5 degrees Celsius in the long term,” Schmidt recalled.
“We are halfway to reaching Pliocene-level heat in just 150 years,” he added.
He noted that to put it in perspective, temperatures during warm periods on Earth three million years ago, when sea levels were dozens of feet higher than today, were only about 3 degrees Celsius warmer than preindustrial levels.
Greenhouse gases, the culprits
Scientists have concluded that the warming trend of recent decades is due to carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
In 2022 and 2023, Earth experienced record increases in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, according to a recent international analysis.
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased from pre-industrial levels in the 18th century of about 278 parts per million to about 420 parts per million today.
NASA also specified that temperatures in individual years can be influenced by natural climate fluctuations such as “El Niño” and “La Niña”, which alternately warm and cool the tropical Pacific Ocean.
The strong “El Niño” that began in the fall of 2023 helped push global temperatures above previous records.
The heat surge that began in 2023 continued to exceed expectations in 2024, Schmidt said, even though “El Nino” subsided.
Researchers are working to identify contributing factors, including potential climate impacts of Tonga volcanic eruption of January 2022 and reductions in pollutionwhich can change cloud cover and the way solar energy is reflected back into space.
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Read also: WMO reveals that 2024 was the warmest year ever recorded
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