This rise in global temperatures has been attributed to human-induced climate change, particularly greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Burgess warned that extreme weather events would become more severe unless urgent action was taken to reduce emissions.
This summer’s climate conditions have already caused several disasters, including last month’s severe flooding in Sudan, which affected more than 300,000 people and has also caused a cholera outbreak in the region.
Droughts on the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia and the intensification of Typhoon Gaemi, which hit the Philippines, Taiwan and China in July and caused more than 100 deaths, have also been linked to climate change.
Record temperatures earlier in the year were triggered by both human-caused climate change and the El Nino weather phenomenon, which warms surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean. But last month, below-average temperatures in the equatorial Pacific signaled a transition to La Nina, El Nino’s cooler counterpart.
Despite the onset of La Nina, global sea surface temperatures remained unusually high. August sea temperatures were warmer than in all other years except 2023. The C3S dataset, which extends back to 1940, is supported by additional data, confirming that summer 2024 will be the warmest since the pre-industrial era in 1850
