It’s not just your impression: summer 2024 was the hottest

The latest bulletin from the European Union’s Copernicus temperature monitoring network provides a snapshot of what It’s been a hot summer for Europe and the whole world: August 2024 recorded an average temperature aligned with that of August 2023, thus once again being the warmest compared to the same period of the year, with an average of 1.51°C above the pre-industrial reference period (1850 – 1900).

Also considering the average temperatures of June and July 2024, according to Copernicus researchers, 2024 was therefore the hottest summer ever recordedwhich saw the two hottest days ever (July 22 and 23), as well as the hottest 12-month sequence (September 2023 – August 2024) of any period of the same length, with an average of 1.64°C above the pre-industrial average.

The delta of average temperatures for the northern summer compared to the period 1991 – 2020. The growth trend is evident.

Since the beginning of the year, temperatures have averaged 0.70°C above the average for the years 1991 – 2020, for which anomalous temperatures are defined, and 0.23°C warmer than the same period in 2023. This suggests that 2024 could set the record for the warmest year: in order not to achieve this record, in the remaining months of 2024 the average anomaly should drop by 0.3°C, something that has never happened before according to Copernicus, based on data from the ERA5 historical archive of observations.

Narrowing the focus to Europe, August 2024 was 1.57°C warmer than the period average compared to the years 1991-2020.making it the second warmest August after 2022. Above-average temperatures were recorded in southern and eastern Europe, but below-average temperatures were felt in the northwest of the United Kingdom and Ireland, Iceland, the west coast of Portugal, and southern Norway. Outside Europe, above-average temperatures were felt in Antarctica, Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, North Africa, and Texas. Conversely, the eastern United States, Alaska, eastern Russia, Pakistan, and parts of South America saw below-average temperatures.