January 2024 was the hottest month ever globally, according to a monthly report by Europe’s Earth observation agency Copernicus. According to the report, the last 12 months had record high temperatures-- 1.52C above the average between 1850 and 1900. Also, it was the eighth consecutive month with record-high monthly temperatures.
“Rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are the only way to stop global temperatures increasing,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement.
Temperature readings in southern Europe, eastern Canada, north-western Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia were well above average readings in the past three decades. Also, temperature readings in western Canada, central US, and most of eastern Siberia were below average.
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, More than 190 countries committed to "pursue efforts" to keep warming within the safer limit of 1.5C. Burgess said, “Not only is it the warmest January on record but we have also just experienced a 12-month period of more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial reference period.”
Kvikkjokk, a Swedish town, on January 3, recorded a temperature of -43.6C-- the coldest January temperature recorded in Sweden in 25 years. According to the Copernicus report, a warming weather pattern called El Nino had begun to weaken in the equatorial Pacific, but marine air temperatures, in general, had remained at an unusually high level.