HEADLINE: Unprecedented Number of Heat Records Broken Around World This Year
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“This amount of extreme heat events is beyond anything ever seen or even thought possible before,” said Maximiliano Herrera, an influential climate historian. “The months from February 2024 to July 2024 have been the most record-breaking for every statistic.”

This is alarming because last year’s extreme heat could be largely attributed to a combination of man-made global heating – caused by burning gas, oil, coal, and trees – and a natural El Niño phenomenon, a warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean surface that is associated with higher temperatures in many parts of the world. The El Niño has been fading since February of this year, but this has brought little relief.

“Sirens are blaring across all major indicators. Some records aren’t just chart-topping – they’re chart-busting. And changes are speeding up,” the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said of last year’s intense global heat.

The European Union’s leading monitoring agency, the Copernicus Climate Change Service, recently reported that June 2024 was the 13th month in a row to set a monthly temperature record, with temperatures 1.5C above the preindustrial average, bringing more intense heatwaves, extreme rainfall events and droughts, reductions in ice sheets, sea ice, and glaciers, as well as accelerated sea-level rise and ocean heating.

There is no end in sight for unwelcome records, according to Carlo Buontempo, the director of Copernicus: “Even if this specific streak of extremes ends at some point, we are bound to see new records being broken as the climate continues to warm. This is inevitable unless we stop adding greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and the oceans.”
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FULL STORY -- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/14/unprecedented-number-of-heat-records-broken-around-world-this-year

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