2024 began with record warmth, world experienced warmest January on record

In January 2024, the world experienced its warmest January ever recorded. The average air temperature was 13.14°C, which is 0.70°C higher than the average for January from 1991 to 2020. It was also 0.12°C warmer than the previous warmest January, which was in 2020. This made it the eighth month in a row that set a new record for warmth.

The warmest-ever January has followed the hottest year in history. Heatwaves, more typical of June, are making many regions in the northern hemisphere swelter. The prolonged and intense heat at the surface of the oceans is shocking marine scientists.

Scientists say that human activity, such as the burning of oil, gas, coal, and deforestation, is mostly causing the extreme heat. Natural factors, in particular, the El Niño – a phenomenon associated with Pacific Ocean warming – that began last year and is expected to continue until spring at least, amplify this.

The heat in January 2024 was 1.66 degrees Celsius more than before the machines. It was the hottest January ever. The group of scientists is part of a program that watches the Earth.

The report that they made said that the air near the ground was very hot in January 2024. It was 13.14 degrees Celsius on average. It was 0.7 degrees Celsius more than the normal heat in January from 1991 to 2020.

This is not the first time that the heat was very high. In the last 174 years, January was the seventh hottest month ever.

The heat was also very high in the last twelve months (February 2023 – January 2024). It was 0.64 degrees Celsius more than the normal heat from 1991 to 2020. And it was 1.52 degrees Celsius more than the normal heat before the machines.

This means that the heat went up more than one and a half degree Celsius in 12 months. This is the first time that this happened. All the countries in the world agreed to keep the heat below 1.5 degrees Celsius. The scientists said that if the heat goes up more than this, it will be very bad for people.

2024 began with record warmth

The global temperature for January 2024 was lower than the last six months of 2023, but it was higher than any month before July 2023. The month was 1.66°C warmer than the average for January from 1850 to 1900, which is considered the pre-industrial period.

The average global temperature for the past twelve months (from February 2023 to January 2024) was the highest ever recorded. It was 0.64°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.52°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average.

In Europe, the temperatures in January 2024 varied. They were much lower than average in the Nordic countries and much higher than average in the south. Outside Europe, temperatures were much higher than average in eastern Canada, north-western Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia. They were lower than average in western Canada, the central USA, and most of eastern Siberia.

The El Niño weather pattern started to weaken in the Pacific Ocean, but the temperatures of the sea air were still unusually high. The average global sea surface temperature for January reached 20.97°C over the area from 60°S to 60°N.

This was a record for January and was 0.26°C warmer than the previous warmest January in 2016. It was the second highest value for any month in the ERA5 dataset, just 0.01°C below the record from August 2023 (20.98°C). Since 31 January, the daily sea surface temperature for 60°S–60°N has set new absolute records, beating the previous highest values from 23rd and 24th of August 2023.

Unprepared for climate catastrophes after hottest January

In the US, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, declared a state of emergency because of heavy rain. This rain was caused by an “atmospheric river” that was made stronger by the unusually warm Pacific Ocean. The rain was so heavy that it caused a lot of damage in San Diego and nearby areas, and at least three people died.

Scientists will need to study these events to find out exactly how much they were caused by climate change caused by humans. But these events are part of a larger trend of more severe impacts from climate change.

Raul Cordero, a professor who studies climate at the University of Groningen and the University of Santiago, said that extreme weather and climate events are happening more often. He said that in some parts of the world, we are seeing disasters caused by climate change that we are not ready for and may not be able to adapt to.

Richard Betts, from the Met Office’s Hadley Centre in the UK, said that many extreme events, like longer heatwaves, heavier rain, more drought, and more wildfires, are getting worse because of climate change caused by humans.

He said that we can still limit how much worse these extremes get if we quickly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero. But with global emissions still going up, he said it’s hard not to worry about how we will deal with what’s coming. He said that we already need to adapt to the changes that we’ve already caused, and it will get harder to adapt the longer we wait to reduce emissions.

January 2024 was wetter than usual

Samantha Burgess, who works at the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), said that 2024 started with a record-breaking month. The record showed it was the warmest January ever, and the average temperature of the past 12 months exceeded the pre-industrial era average by more than 1.5°C.

2024 started with a record-breaking month. The records show that the past January was the warmest ever and the average temperature of the past 12 months exceeded the pre-industrial era average temperature by more than 1.5°C.

In January 2024, the amount of sea ice in the Arctic was close to the average and was the highest for January since 2009. There was more sea ice than usual in the Greenland Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk, but less than usual in the Labrador Sea.

In Antarctica, the amount of sea ice was the sixth lowest for January, at 18% below average. This was still much higher than the lowest amount recorded in January 2023, which was 31% below average. There was less sea ice than usual mainly in the Ross and Amundsen Seas, the northern Weddell Sea, and along the coast of East Antarctica.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a warm start to January could bolster Earth's chances for a record-warm 2024. They stated that there is a "one-in-three chance that 2024 will be warmer than 2023, and a 99% chance that 2024 will rank among the top five warmest years."

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