April, a month typically known for showers and more than a few forgettable chocolate bunnies, has just muscled its way into the history books for being the hottest ever recorded, according to data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. With an average surface air temperature of 15.03 degrees Celsius globally, the month was 0.67 degrees warmer than the 1991 to 2020 April average, and just enough to make even spring skeptics wonder where the breeze wandered off to.
This blistering April marks the 11th record-breaking month in a row, which for anyone keeping score means the climate is now on a hotter streak than your friend who keeps winning at pub trivia. The planet has now endured 12 consecutive months with average global temperatures at least 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a milestone that was once theoretical and is now as real as sunburn in February.
To clarify, while the past year has danced over the 1.5 degrees line that scientists warned against, this alone does not imply the Paris Agreement’s target has officially been roasted. That threshold concerns long-term averages, ideally across two decades, rather than a particularly sweaty lap around the sun. Still, it is probably not the sort of thing you should be bragging about in your annual report to the environment.
European temperatures in April 2024 were notably above average, with swaths of central and eastern Europe reporting highs more suited to ice cream sales than light jacket season. And just to make sure this wasn’t a fluke, global sea surface temperatures outside the polar regions also hit record highs for the thirteenth month running, effectively turning the world’s oceans into a giant warm bath nobody asked for.
“The latest data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service shows that April 2024 was warmer globally than any previous April in our dataset,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the service. “This is the 11th record month in a row, and the 12th month in a row that the global temperature has exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.”
El Niño, the Pacific Ocean’s resident mischief-maker, has certainly played a supporting role in the planetary furnace, but climate scientists are quick to note that human-induced emissions remain the headline act. It is not so much that nature is acting out as that we have been feeding it energy drinks for decades and are now surprised it is bouncing off the atmospheric walls.
So while April has turned up the heat in more ways than one, there is still time to adjust the climate’s settings before we end up living in a sauna with polar bears as endangered steam room companions.
The forecast calls for concern with a chance of mild optimism if we actually do something about it.