April breaks hottest month record for 11 months in a row

Records continue to be broken. According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Agency, global temperatures last month were the highest on record for April, marking the 11th consecutive month on record.

The global average surface temperature in April 2024 was 15.03°C (59.05°F), 0.14°C above the previous record for April, set in 2016.

This means that the average global temperature in April 2024 was 1.6 degrees Celsius higher than the average April temperature from 1850 to 1900, which climatologists consider the pre-industrial benchmark.

The global average for the past 12 months is also the highest on record, 1.6 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 average.

As part of the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries pledged to try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Climate scientists do not consider the 1.5°C limit to have been breached until the long-term average exceeds it, which could happen by 2030.

There is no doubt that the long-term rise in global temperatures is caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

The El Niño phenomenon, in which warm water spreads into the Pacific Ocean and releases heat into the atmosphere, has also contributed to the recent string of record-setting months. In 2016, a strong El Niño event set his previous April record.

There is a high possibility of La Niña will occur This means that in the second half of the year, cold water spreads into the Atlantic Ocean, cooling the surface air but warming the ocean. As a result, the Earth’s surface temperature should temporarily decrease.

“El Niño reached its peak at the beginning of the year.” carlo buontempo The Copernicus Climate Change Service said in a statement: “But while temperature fluctuations associated with natural cycles like El Niño come and go, the extra energy trapped in the oceans and atmosphere due to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases is causing global temperatures to change. We’ll keep pushing towards the record.”

In fact, the Earth’s surface temperature over the past year has been even higher than expected given anthropogenic warming and the El Niño phenomenon, raising concerns that global warming may be accelerating.