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May 2024 is poised to become the 12th month to break its temperature record, following the trend of the last 11 months, all of which have broken monthly temperature records since the pre-industrial period. This streak of record-breaking temperatures may even extend into June; if it does, the month would have broken its temperature records two years in a row.
Both air and ocean temperatures have been on a record-breaking streak for the past 12 months and 13 months, respectively. There has been a greater fingerprint of global warming induced by greenhouse gas emissions than any natural climatic factors, such as the ongoing El Nino climate phenomenon, which has added to the overall warming.
“With half the month of data in, its very likely (greater than 95 per cent chance) that May 2024 will be the warmest May on record, extending the streak of record-breaking months to 12 in a row,” wrote Zeke Hausfather, climate scientist with United States-based non profit Berkeley Earth, on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
On May 15, 2024, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) declared April 2024 as the hottest month on record. The month experienced an average surface air temperature of 15.03 degrees Celsius — 0.67°C above the 1991-2020 average for April and 0.14°C more than the previous record set in 2016, according to data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) of the European Union.
This temperature value was 1.58°C greater than the pre-industrial average between 1850 and 1900. The WMO made it clear that “monthly breaches of 1.5°C do not mean that the world has failed to achieve the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal, which refers to a long-term temperature increase over decades.”
South America experienced its warmest April on record and Europe suffered from its second-warmest April, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the US.
Eurasia and North America experienced significantly lower snowfall than usual in April, while eastern Russia and China received above-average snowfall. The overall snow cover extent for the Northern Hemisphere in April was also at a record low.
The WMO also highlighted that sea-surface temperatures have been at record highs for the past 13 months and that extreme weather events during this period have resulted in numerous casualties and socioeconomic disruptions.
The average global sea surface temperature was 21.04°C, which was also a record, according to the C3S.
“The sea-surface temperature in several ocean basins, including in the tropical belt, continues to be record high, releasing more heat and moisture to the atmosphere and thus exacerbating conditions,” said Alvaro Silva, a WMO climate expert, in a press release.
The heating of the atmosphere and oceans translated into many deadly extreme weather events around the world in April.
Many regions in Asia suffered from intense heatwaves in the month, which have been attributed to global warming and consequent climate change by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group.
In India, the eastern states of Odisha and West Bengal suffered from the most heatwave days. Bangladesh has also faced intense heat.
In southeast Asia, the most affected countries were Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar.
For South Asia in particular, the heatwaves were made 30 times more likely by global warming of 1.2°C since pre-industrial times, according to the WWA.
Heatwaves in the Philippines would have been impossible without climate change, stated the group of scientists, who analyse data from observations and climate models to inform about the role played by global warming and consequent climate change in the occurrence, intensity, and frequency of extreme weather events.
“The heatwave added pressure to the many challenges already faced by people in refugee camps and conflict zones, such as water shortages, difficulties accessing medicines and poor living conditions for the large population that lives in makeshift tents that trap heat,” said the WWA in a statement.
Other extreme weather events affected many parts of the world, such as the drought in southern Africa. There was extremely heavy rainfall and flooding in the Arabian Peninsula, which occurred due to a massive anticyclone over the Arabian Sea. East Africa and southern Brazil also experienced continuous heavy rainfall that lasted well into May.