The scorching heatwave, known as “Lucifer,” is blazing through Geria Epirus, pushing temperatures back into the 40s across Greece.
Due to greenhouse gases emitted by human activities, global temperature records have been consistently broken for over a year now. June 2024 was the warmest month ever recorded, surpassing the previous record set in June 2023.
With a series of heatwaves spanning from Mexico to China to Saudi Arabia, June 2024 marked the thirteenth consecutive month of record-high average temperatures, according to data released by the European Copernicus Observatory.
This unprecedented streak of records is driven by significant ocean warming, which absorbs 90% of the excess heat generated by human activities. “The average global temperature over the last 12 months (July 2023 – June 2024) is the highest on record,” stated the Copernicus Observatory’s Climate Change Service (C3S).
During this period, the average temperature was “1.64°C higher than the pre-industrial average” from 1850 to 1900, a time before deforestation and the burning of coal, gas, and oil had significantly contributed to global warming.
June 2024 also marked “the 12th consecutive month that the pre-industrial average has been exceeded by 1.5°C,” noted Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S.
The 1.5°C threshold is the most ambitious target of the Paris Climate Agreement (2015), signed by nearly all countries. However, this anomaly needs to persist for several decades to confirm that the climate has stabilized at this level.
Although global temperatures have already risen by about 1.2°C compared to the period from 1850 to 1900, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts a 50-50 chance of exceeding the 1.5°C limit between 2030 and 2035 at the current rate of emissions, which are expected to peak in 2025.
In June, temperatures were near or below normal for the season (1991-2020) in some regions, but France and much of western Europe experienced unusually high temperatures.
In Saudi Arabia, over 1,300 people died during the great pilgrimage to Mecca, with temperatures reaching 51.8°C in the Grand Mosque of Islam’s holy city.
In Greece, the Acropolis had to be closed in mid-June as temperatures soared above 44°C. Northern China, including Beijing, endured temperatures above 40°C, while southern China faced severe flooding.
Kenya, Afghanistan, and France also experienced devastating floods, a phenomenon intensified by global warming, which increases the maximum moisture capacity of the atmosphere and thus the potential intensity of rainfall.
In the US and Mexico, deadly heatwaves in late May and early June have become 35 times more likely due to climate change, according to the World Weather Attribution (WWA) scientific network.
In the Amazon, enduring a historic drought, June saw the worst six-month period in 20 years for the number of fires, leading to a “state of emergency” in Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul.
Another consequence of the heatwaves was widespread power outages in the Balkans, Pakistan, and Egypt, causing essential devices like ventilation systems, fans, air conditioners, and refrigerators to stop working.
As the cyclical La Niña climate phenomenon, associated with lower global temperatures, is expected to occur by the end of the year, “we can expect the global temperature to decrease in the coming months,” C3S scientist Julien Nicolas told AFP.
The global temperature at the end of 2024 will largely depend on the heat levels in the oceans, which cover 70% of the planet’s surface and have had record-high surface water temperatures for over a year.
The unusual heat on the surface of the North Atlantic has strengthened the power of Beryl, a powerful cyclone causing destruction in the Antilles since July. It has left at least seven dead in the Caribbean and Venezuela and is now threatening America.
