It is confirmed: 2024 was the warmest year for the planet since records began. The average surface temperature of the Earth was the highest on record, according to an analysis led by NASA scientists.
“Once again, the temperature record has been broken: 2024 was the warmest year since records began in 1880,” said the agency’s administrator, Bill Nelson.
This was also confirmed in the latest report Copernicus Global Climate Highlights Report 2024, from the European Union’s space program Copernicus.
2024 was the warmest year
“Between record temperatures and the wildfires currently threatening our facilities and staff in California, it has never been more important to understand our changing planet,” Nelson emphasized.
Global temperatures in 2024 were 2.30 degrees Fahrenheit (1.28 degrees Celsius) above NASA’s reference period average (from 1951 to 1980).
This surpassed the record set in 2023. The new all-time high comes after 15 consecutive months (June 2023 to August 2024) of record monthly temperatures, an unprecedented heat streak.
NASA scientists also estimate that in 2024 the Earth was around 2.65 degrees Fahrenheit (1.47 degrees Celsius) warmer than the mid-19th century average (1850-1900).
For more than half of 2024, average temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above the reference level, and the annual average, with mathematical uncertainties, could have exceeded the level for the first time.
The goal of the Paris Agreement
“The Paris Agreement on climate change establishes efforts to stay below the 1.5-degree level in the long term,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.
“To put that into perspective, temperatures during warm periods on Earth three million years ago (when sea levels were tens of meters higher than today) were only about 3 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels,” he added.
“We are halfway to reaching Pliocene heat levels in just 150 years,” he concluded.
Extreme consequences
As a consequence of this, the frequency and severity of extreme weather events are increasing. This translates into more frequent summer heatwaves due to changes in atmospheric circulation, wildfires, or floods.
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