Last month was officially the hottest April on RECORD
- April 2024 was warmer than any previous April in records dating back to 1940
- Pushing up temperatures were record levels of greenhouse gases and El Niño
This April has been the hottest recorded worldwide – and the 11th successive record-breaking month in a row, new figures show.
April 2024 was warmer than any previous April in records dating back to 1940, according to Copernicus, the EU’s Climate Change Service.
Pushing up the air temperatures worldwide was both record levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the weather phenomenon known as El Niño.
Global temperatures typically increase during an El Niño episode, as warmer water spreads further, and stays closer to the surface, releasing more heat into the atmosphere, creating wetter and warmer air.
Surface air temperature for the month was 15.03°C – 0.67°C above the 1991-2020 average for April, and 0.14°C above the previous high set in April 2016.
This April has been the hottest recorded worldwide – and the 11th successive record-breaking month in a row, new figures show. Pictured: people hold umbrellas amid a heatwave in Taiwan on April 29
Surface air temperature for the month was 15.03°C – 0.67°C above the 1991-2020 average for April, and 0.14°C above the previous high set in April 2016
The global average temperature for the past 12 months, May 2023 to April 2024, is the highest on record – at 1.61°C above the 1850-1900 period that is used as the benchmark for pre-industrial levels, before significant impacts of human activity began to influence the global climate.
In Europe, the continent warming fastest on Earth in the face of human-driven climate change, temperatures were 1.49°C above the 1990-2020 average for April, making it the second hottest on record.
While the hottest April record was smashed worldwide, and in Europe temperatures in the UK for April have been labelled ‘average’ at 8.3°C by the Met Office, at just 0.4°C higher above the 1991-2020 long-term average.
The global average temperature for the past 12 months, May 2023 to April 2024, is the highest on record – at 1.61°C above the 1850-1900 period that is used as the benchmark for pre-industrial levels, before significant impacts of human activity began to influence the global climate
Average global sea surface temperatures outside the polar regions were 21.04°C, the highest in records from 1979 for the month, and marginally below the record 21.07°C seen in March
Average global sea surface temperatures outside the polar regions were 21.04°C, the highest in records from 1979 for the month, and marginally below the record 21.07°C seen in March.
It is the 13th month in a row that the sea surface temperature has been the warmest in the records for the respective month of the year.
The El Niño climate phenomenon in the Pacific, which also pushes up global temperatures, continued to weaken but marine air temperatures in general remained at an usually high level, scientists said.
Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), said: ‘El Nino peaked at the beginning of the year and the sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific are now going back towards neutral conditions.
‘However, whilst temperature variations associated with natural cycles like El Nino come and go, the extra energy trapped into the ocean and the atmosphere by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases will keep pushing the global temperature towards new records.’
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