July ends 13-month streak of global heat records

BRUSSELS — Earth's run of 13 straight months with a new average heat record came to an end in July as the natural El Nino climate pattern ebbed, the European climate agency Copernicus Climate Change Service announced on Wednesday.

But July 2024's average heat just missed surpassing the July of a year ago and scientists said the end of the record-breaking streak changes nothing about the threat posed by climate change.

"The overall context hasn't changed," Copernicus Deputy Director Samantha Burgess said in a statement. "Our climate continues to warm."

The global temperature for July 2024 averaged 16.91 C, which is 0.68 C above the 30-year average for the month, according to Copernicus. Temperatures were a small fraction lower than the same period last year.

It is the second-warmest July and second-warmest of any month recorded in the agency's records, behind only July 2023. The Earth also had its two hottest days on record, on July 22 and July 23, each averaging about 17.16 C.

During July, the world was 1.48 C warmer, according to Copernicus' measurement, than in preindustrial times. That's close to the warming limit that nearly all the countries in the world agreed to in the 2015 Paris climate agreement: 1.5 C.

El Nino — which naturally warms the Pacific Ocean and changes weather across the globe — spurred the 13 months of record heat, said Copernicus senior climate scientist Julien Nicolas. That has come to a close, hence July's slight easing of temperatures. La Nina conditions — natural cooling — aren't expected until later in the year.

"The fact that the global sea surface temperature is and has been at record or near record levels for the past more than a year now has been an important contributing factor," Nicolas said. "The main driving force … behind this record temperature is also the long-term warming trend that is directly related to buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere."

That includes carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.

Agencies via Xinhua