July 2024 second hottest month on record, says EU climate service

Last month was the second warmest July on record, new figures have revealed.

This spells the end of a long series of global temperature records, according to data published by the European Union Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

The organisation supports society by “providing authoritative information about the past, present and future climate in Europe and the rest of the world”.

After 13 months all showing the hottest average temperatures, last month – at 16.91°C, was slightly cooler than the July 2023 record of 16.95°C.

While unusual, a similar length streak of monthly global temperature records happened previously in 2015/2016 during the last strong El Niño event, C3S noted.

“The streak of record-breaking months has come to an end, but only by a whisker,” Copernicus deputy director Samantha Burgess said. “Globally, July 2024 was almost as warm as July 2023, the hottest month on record.

“July 2024 saw the two hottest days on record,” she continued. “The overall context hasn’t changed, our climate continues to warm. The devastating effects of climate change started well before 2023 and will continue until global greenhouse gas emissions reach net-zero.”

Copernicus data also show that it was 1.48°C warmer on Earth in July than it was in the second half of the 19th century (1850-1900), the designated pre-industrial reference period. This July marked the end of a series of 12 consecutive months at or above 1.5°C.

The 1.5°C limit is the lower limit and target of the Paris Climate Agreement 2015, based on the average over the last 20 years.

The weather service also noted that this July saw the two hottest days since the series of measurements began in 1940. On 22 July, the average global temperature climbed to 17.16°C, an unprecedented level. On 23 July, an average of 17.15°C was measured.

However, as this difference is so small and falls within the margin of error of the measurements, climatologists cannot say with certainty which of the two days were warmer.

In general, European temperatures were most above average over southern and eastern Europe, but near or below average over north-western Europe.

Outside Europe, temperatures were most above average over the western United States and western Canada, most of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and eastern Antarctica.