Europe has been hit by heatwaves and extreme weather since June. A general cooling in the last four months of 2024 will not be enough
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“There climate crisis is tightening its grip on us”: thesummer 2024 it has been declared the hottest ever.
The news comes from the European Climate Service Copernicus. The director Charles Good Timelike other climate scientists, was undecided whether 2024 would be the warmest year on record because August 2023 was vastly warmer than average.
But then this August 2024 matched 2023, making Buontempo “fairly certain” that this year will end up being the warmest year on record.
“For 2024 not to be the warmest year on record, we need to see significant landscape cooling in the remaining months, which does not seem likely at this stage,” Buontempo said.
The hottest summer ever
The northern meteorological summer of June, July and August averaged 16.8 degrees, according to Copernicus. This is 0.03 degrees above the old record set in 2023.
Copernicus’s records date back to 1940but American, British and Japanese records, dating back to the mid-19th century, show that the last decade has been the warmest since regular measurements have been made and probably in about 120,000 years, some scientists say.
The months of August 2024 and 2023 they were the hottest in the worldwith 16.82 degrees. The only exception was the month of July, when for the first time in more than a year a record was not set because it was a little “colder” than 2023. But since June 2024 was much warmer than June 2023, This summer as a whole has been the hottest everaccording to director Buontempo.
“What these numbers indicate is how the climate crisis is tightening its grip on us,” he said. Stefan Rahmstorfclimate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, who was not involved in the research.
Why the Earth is warming
While some of last year’s record heat was caused by El Ninoa temporary natural heating of some areas of the Pacific central that has altered the climate all over the world, that effect has disappeared and this shows that the main factor is the long-term climate change caused by themanfrom the coal burning, petrolium And natural gas.
“It’s not surprising that we’re seeing this heat wave and these extreme temperatures,” Buontempo said. “We’re bound to see more of this.”
A cooling in the last months of 2024 will not be enough
With the prediction of a possible arrival of The Girla temporary natural cooling of some areas of the Pacific central, the last four months of the year they could no longer be a record-breaker. But it’s unlikely to be cool enough to prevent 2024 from breaking the annual record, Buontempo said.
These are not just numbers in a record book, but weather conditions that are harming people, climate scientists said.
“All of this translates into increased suffering around the world, as places like Phoenix are starting to feel like a barbecue that’s been closed up for longer and longer periods of the year,” said University of Michigan dean and climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck. This year the city ofArizona has had more than 100 days of 37.8 degrees. “With longer and more severe heatwaves comes more severe droughts in some places and more intense rainfall and flooding in others. Climate change is becoming too obvious and too costly to ignore.”
Extremely hot summer in Europe
Few places in Europe escaped the heat waves and extreme weather this summer, even Olympic athletes couldn’t escape the heat.
Heat waves have hit Greece, Türkiye And Cyprus already in June, with the deaths of five tourists in the space of a few weeks.
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Then four people died in Italywhen temperatures hit 38 degrees. Heatwaves are discriminatory, with older women more at risk of death.
In August, France experienced its hottest weekend of the year. After a deadly heatwave in 2003, France is one of the best-prepared countries in Europe, with warning systems in place to keep citizens safe.
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