The planet’s temperature in August this year exceeded 1.51 degrees Celsius (°C) above pre-industrial levels, for the 13th month in the last 14 months. It was the warmest August on Earth in the historical series of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, with an average surface air temperature 0.71 °C above the average for the period 1991 to 2020.
The global average temperature from September 2023 to August 2024 was the highest recorded for any 12-month period, 0.76°C above the period between 1991 and 2020 and 1.64°C above the pre-industrial average from 1850 to 1900.
The average sea surface temperature for August 2024 was 20.91°C, considering the Temperate and Intertropical zones, at a depth of about 10 meters. According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, this is the second highest value on record for the month, and only 0.07°C below August 2023.
According to the August 2024 Bulletin, published by the institution this Friday (6), it is likely that the year 2024 will surpass the temperatures recorded in 2023. “This sequence of record temperatures is increasing the likelihood that 2024 will be the hottest year on record. The extreme temperature-related events witnessed this summer will only become more intense, with more devastating consequences for people and the planet, unless we take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said the deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, Samantha Burgess.
In the hydrological analysis, the institution also found that August was drier than average in most of South America and recorded the incidence of forest fires in Brazil.
Funded by the European Union, Copernicus is the world’s leading Earth observation programme that uses measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world to produce data analyses on the atmosphere, marine, Earth, climate change, security and emergencies.
The programme is coordinated and managed by the European Commission and implemented in partnership with Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, among others.
