A record-breaking August has just ended. And as is increasingly the case when we talk about climate, the record is obviously negative. This is certified by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the European Union’s climate analysis service, whose data reveal average global temperatures 1.51 degrees higher than the pre-industrial era averages, making it the hottest ever recorded, on par with last year. And it’s the thirteenth month, in the last 14, in which global averages have consistently exceeded one and a half degrees above pre-industrial levels. A psychological threshold, at least for now, given that the limits discussed in the Paris agreements concern long-term trends, calculated on ten-year averages, but exceeding them, even for short periods, does not bode well for the future.
Looking at the last 12 months, the averages are also the highest ever recorded in such a period of time, with 1.64 degrees above the pre-industrial ones. The entire summer period also marked a record, with 1.54 degrees above the averages of the period 1991-2020, and about 0.2 degrees above the previous warmest summer, that of 2022. The same goes for the period January-August: the warmest on record, 0.70 degrees above the average of the last 30 years, and 0.23 degrees warmer than what was recorded in the same period last year.
In Europe, the situation was even more extreme than what was seen globally: the average temperatures of August 2024 were 1.57 degrees higher than those of the period 1991-2020, making it the second hottest ever, behind that of 2022. The heat wave involved Western Europe, in countries such as Romania, Serbia and Bosnia (where thermometers exceeded 41 degrees), and the Mediterranean areas, led by Italy, Portugal and Spain.
The last 12 months have been 1.48 degrees above the 30-year average, confirming their status as the warmest ever on our continent, and 2024 could soon be confirmed as the warmest year for Europeans, a title currently held by 2020, when temperatures averaged 1.19 degrees above the 30-year average.
