March closes with +1.68°C, yet another global warming record
For the 10th month in a row, the Earth has broken the global warming record. March 2024 was also the hottest ever, surpassing a tenth of a degree in the same month of 2016. And exceeding the threshold of 1.5 degrees for the umpteenth time. The thermal anomaly compared to the pre-industrial era (1850-1900) has reached +1.68°C (+0.73°C on the average of the last 30 years, 1991-2020). This was announced by the European satellite monitoring service Copernicus.
A year at +1.58°C
Although El Nino is calming down, its effects on the global climate continue to be felt. In addition to the ‘Child‘ – a cyclic phenomenon that depends on the natural variability of the climate, not man -, other factors also count. The anthropic ones, like the continuous increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The surface temperatures of the oceans are still at unprecedented levels, which in March reached 21.07°C. And probably the contribution of feedback mechanisms.
The result is this: the last 12 months (April 2023 – March 2024) have exceeded the limit of the Paris Agreement, with an average temperature of +1.58 ºC over the pre-industrial era (+0.7 ºC on 1991-2020). “A rapid reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is needed to stop further warming,” says Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Service.
Global warming record also in Europe
Global temperatures well above average also characterized the old continent. For Europe, March 2024 was the second hottest month ever in the Copernicus historical series, practically on par with the same month of 2014. The difference is just 0.02 C. Compared with the last 30 years, Europe has lived a March 2.12 a C warmer. Once again, it is mainly the regions of Central and Eastern Europe that see the most significant thermal anomalies.
