EU climate service: August, summer 2024 both hottest on record

Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The summer of 2024 has been the hottest on record so far, a European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said.

Samantha Burgess, the director of Copernicus which measures global surface air and sea temperatures, sea ice cover and hydrological variables on behalf of the European Union Space Program, said during the past three months of 2024 "the globe has experienced the hottest June and August, the hottest day on record, and the hottest boreal summer on record."

"This string of record temperatures is increasing the likelihood of 2024 being the hottest year on record," Burgess said. "The temperature-related extreme events witnessed this summer will only become more intense, with more devastating consequences for people and the planet unless we take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

The average surface air temperature this past August was 16.82 degrees Celsius which came in 0.71 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average for the same month.

August temperatures clocked in around 1.51 degrees Celsius above the 1850 pre-industrial level, according to the service. It is also the 13th month over a 14-month period during which the global-average surface air temperature exceeded pre-industrial levels by that amount.

"This has never happened in the entire ERA5 dataset, making it increasingly likely that 2024 is going to be the warmest year on record," the agency said in the statement.

Southern and eastern Europe generally saw above-average temperatures for the month.

Northwestern parts of Ireland, Britain and Iceland did see below-average temperatures in August, as did the west coast of Portugal, and southern Norway.

On a global level, eastern Antarctica, Texas, Mexico, Canada, northeast Africa, Iran, China, Japan, and Australia all measured above-average monthly temperatures during August.

Parts of far eastern Russia and Alaska, the eastern United States, parts of southern South America and areas of Pakistan all saw below-average monthly temperatures.

Arctic sea ice measurements continued to see a decline as well through August.

Ice measurements were 17% below average, the fourth-lowest August on record since satellite records became available and below average for the previous three years.