Last month was officially the hottest May on RECORD with global temperatures 0.65°C above average – as scientists say the climate ‘continues to alarm us’
Last month was officially the warmest May on record, dating back to 1940. This has been shown by the EU’s climate change programme.
The global average temperature for May 2024 was 60.6 F (15.91 C), which is 0.34 F (0.19 C) higher than the temperature of the previous warmest May of 2020.
Worryingly, this is also 0.65°C warmer than the 1991-2020 global average for May – and experts point to greenhouse gas emissions as the cause.
May 2024 also marks the twelfth consecutive record month, with every month since June 2023 being the warmest on record.
Dr. Samantha Burgess, director of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), said the climate “continues to alarm us”.
March 2024 was the warmest March on record globally, with an average surface temperature of 15.91°C (60.6°F).
Globally, May 2024 was the warmest May, dating back to at least 1940, when the EU Department’s records began. Pictured is a man sunbathing in Hastings, East Sussex, May 9, 2024
She pointed to global warming and El Nino – the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
“The last 12 months have been record-breaking like never before – driven mainly by our greenhouse gas emissions and an added boost from the El Niño event in the tropical Pacific,” Dr Burgess said.
‘Until we reach net-zero global emissions, the climate will continue to warm, break records and produce even more extreme weather events.
‘If we choose to keep adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, 2023/4 will soon look like a cool year, similar to what 2015/6 looks like now.’
This follows confirmation from the Met Office that Britain had its warmest May and warmest spring on record, despite being ‘wet and dull’.
But this new reading from the EU is an average for the entire world and therefore gives a bigger picture of how the planet’s overall temperature is changing.
Experts say the past 12 months have ‘broken records like never before’. Pictured, a woman tries to cool down on a hot afternoon at Connaught Place in New Delhi, India, May 12, 2024
May 2024 marks the twelfth consecutive record month, with every month since June 2023 being the warmest on record
C3S, managed by the European Commission, looks at temperature measurements from a variety of platforms and instruments, from weather stations to weather balloons and satellites.
The department’s measurements refer to the average air temperature for the entire planet over the entire year – so lower than a single typical ‘hot’ temperature measurement.
According to C3S, May 2024 was 1.52 °C (2.73 °F) above the estimated May average for the period 1850–1900, the designated pre-industrial reference period.
Furthermore, the global average temperature over the past twelve months (June 2023 to May 2024) is now the highest ever recorded.
The past 12 months have been 0.75°C above the average from 1991 to 2020 and 1.63°C above the pre-industrial average from 1850 to 1900, the department said.
Looking at Europe separately from the rest of the world, temperatures last month were 1.58 F (0.88 C) above the 1991-2020 average for May – making May 2024 the third warmest May on record for Europe .
A lady protects herself under an umbrella on a hot day at Chilla Village as the temperature rises in the Delhi-NCRon May 31, 2024 in New Delhi, India
Women stay cool during hot weather at the Temple of Dawn, or Wat Arun, in Bangkok, Thailand, May 6, 2024
Met Office reported that Britain had its warmest May and warmest spring on record, despite being ‘wet and dull’. Crowds enjoy the warm weather at a swimming pool in Hathersage, Derbyshire, England, May 10, 2024
CS3 said much of the Iberian Peninsula, southwestern Turkey and a large region of eastern Europe, including southern Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, were drier than average last month.
But May 2024 was wetter than average over much of Iceland, Britain and Ireland, central and most of southeastern Europe, north of the Iberian Peninsula and western Russia.
Globally, drier than average regions include the southwestern and parts of the interior of the US and Canada, west of the Caspian Sea, Central Asia and southernmost China, regions of Australia, most of South America and southern Africa.
CS3 also revealed that the global average sea surface temperature (another metric that measures heat close to the ocean surface) was 20.93°C last month, the highest value ever recorded for the month of May.
