The muggy Earth is experiencing an 11-month warming period as global air and sea surface temperatures soar.
The world experienced its hottest April on record, continuing an 11-month streak of unprecedented high temperatures, the European Union’s climate change monitoring service said.
Every month since June 2023 has been the hottest on record on the planet, compared to the corresponding month in previous years, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Wednesday.
The exceptionally warm conditions occurred despite a weakening El Niño – the weather phenomenon that warms the Pacific Ocean and causes global temperatures to rise – leading researchers to blame human-caused climate change.
According to C3S, April was 1.58 degrees Celsius (2.84 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than an estimate for the same month in the pre-industrial period from 1850 to 1900.
While there are temperature fluctuations associated with natural cycles such as El Niño, “the additional energy trapped by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the ocean and atmosphere will continue to drive global temperatures to new records,” C3S said -Director Carlo Buontempo.
Average temperatures over the past 12 months have exceeded the critical warming threshold of 1.5°C (2.7°F) set by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, calculated over decades, and remain within reach.
In 2015, nearly 200 governments signed an agreement to phase out fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy in the second half of the century. Last year, the United Nations said the world was not on track to meet the long-term goals of that agreement, including limiting global warming to 1.5C.
Weather extremes around the world
Eastern Europe and most of Africa were particularly hot in April, C3S said, confirming reports of record heatwaves that led to school closures in South Sudan and high spring daytime temperatures of over 30 C (86 C) in countries such as Slovakia F) recorded.
Globally, April was a month of varying extremes in the form of floods and droughts.
Parts of South and Southeast Asia, from Bangladesh to Vietnam, were hit by scorching heatwaves, while southern Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and the East African countries of Kenya and Tanzania suffered deadly floods.
Pakistan recorded double the normal monthly rainfall in April, making it the country’s wettest month in more than 60 years.
April was wetter than usual across much of Europe, but southern Spain, Italy and the Western Balkans were drier than average, C3S reported.
Meanwhile, eastern Australia was hit by heavy rain, although conditions were drier than normal across most of the country and also in northern Mexico.
Average sea surface temperatures were also unusually high, breaking records for the 13th straight month in April, despite weakening El Niño, the agency said.
Warmer oceans threaten sea life and contribute to a hotter atmosphere, making bodies of water less effective at absorbing the greenhouse gas emissions that are heating the planet.