June 2024 beats June 2023, sizzles to 13th straight monthly heat record

June 2024 was the hottest month on record across the globe, and the global average temperature recorded during the month broke the previous June record set in 2023

The EU's climate change monitoring service Copernicus revealed that June 2024 was recorded as the hottest month in recorded history, continuing the year-long streak of record-shattering hot months.

Since June last year, the world has witnessed record temperatures for 12 consecutive months, a situation the world has never witnessed before, reported Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) data. The data gathered points out that 2024 would outcompete 2023 as the hottest year due to a significant rise in temperature over the years. 

Scientists also believed that the July month would end the record-setting part of the heat streak, but not the climate chaos that comes with it. 

Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at Berkeley Earth, estimated that there is approximately a 95 per cent chance that 2024 would beat 2023 and emerge as the warmest year since the temperature record began in the mid-1800s.

The rapidly increasing temperature is an alarming situation across the world and has already unleashed some disastrous consequences in 2024. Last month, around 1000 people died during Hajj Pilgrimage due to heat-related complications.

The scientific organisation, C3S, that belongs to the EU's space program gathered the data from weather stations, satellites, aircraft and ships to conclude that June 2024 was the 12th consecutive month in succession with temperatures 1.5-degree Celsius greater than their average between 1850 and 1900. Copernicus last month stated that it is very likely to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next five years.

El Nino contributes to heat

The record-breaking heat across the world coincided with El Nino. El Nino is a natural phenomenon which plays a significant role in hotter weather. As a result, the ocean temperature also broke new records. 

The sea surface temperature hit new heights for the 16th consecutive year in June, experts are calling it 'striking'. 

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report mentioned that 1.5C of warming might take the life of 70 to 90 per cent of tropical coral reefs, while 2C warming will “wipe them out of existence.” 

70 per cent of the Earth's surface is covered by oceans, absorbing 90 per cent of the extra heat is linked with surging climate-warming emissions. 

A climate scientist at Imperial College London's Grantham Institute, Friederike Otto, emphasises the urgent need for action and states that we can't stop El Nino but we can stop the burning of oil, gas, and coal.