By March, NOAA estimated a 55% chance that 2024 would be Earth's warmest year.
Last year easily surpassed 2023 as the warmest globally, based on data from Copernicus Climate Change Service and confirmed by NASA and NOAA.
While this is the first calendar year on record to top the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming threshold, it's not the first time the planet has passed that mark, including the 12-month global average temperature between February 2023 and January 2024 and the monthly global average temperature in February 2016.
"All of the internationally produced global temperature datasets show that 2024 was the hottest year since records began in 1850. Humanity is in charge of its own destiny but how we respond to the climate challenge should be based on evidence. The future is in our hands -- swift and decisive action can still alter the trajectory of our future climate," said Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, in a press statement.
While human-produced greenhouse gas emissions and El Niño were key contributors to the 2024 record, some scientists believe there is something else at play as well.One possibility is that the planet is a victim of its own success in curbing air pollution. In recent decades, regulations, including one in 2020 that drastically cut the amount of sulfur dioxide being released by ships, have significantly reduced the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere.
So certain of the trends, Dessler concludes by saying that this year "will end up being among the coldest years of this century. Enjoy it while it lasts."It wasn't supposed to be like this. When the historic Paris Agreement was signed in 2016, then-President Barack Obama, "Today, the world meets the moment. And if we follow through on the commitments that this agreement embodies, history may well judge it as a turning point for our planet."No more hot air ...
While climate change may not be responsible for these disasters, human-amplified climate change is making naturally occurring weather events more intense and frequent, according to, which provides the energy hurricanes need to intensify. Hurricanes Beryl and Milton rapidly intensified over unusually warm ocean water, made several hundred times more likely due to human-amplified climate change.
Hottest Year On Record Global Warming Climate Change 15787461
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