World experienced its second-warmest October last month, says European weather agency
The globe experienced its second-warmest October last month after 2023 with the average surface air temperature 0.80°C above the 1991-2020 average for October, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Thursday.
Earlier this week, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said India went through its warmest October since 1901 last month.
C3S said the average global temperature anomaly for the first 10 months of 2024 (January to October) was 0.71°C above the 1991-2020 average — the highest on record for this period and 0.16°C warmer than the same period in 2023.
Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of C3S, said: “After 10 months of 2024 it is now virtually certain that 2024 will be the warmest year on record and the first year of more than 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels according to the ERA5 dataset. This marks a new milestone in global temperature records and should catalyze to raise ambition for the upcoming Climate Change Conference, COP29.“
Annual temperature
“The average temperature anomaly for the rest of 2024 would have to drop to almost zero for 2024 to not be the warmest year,” said C3S, implemented by the European Centre for medium-range weather forecasts on behalf of the European Commission with funding from the EU.
Given that 2023 was 1.48°C above the pre-industrial level, it is almost certain that the annual temperature for 2024 from ERA5 will be more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level, it said.
October 2024 was the second-warmest October globally, after October 2023, with an average ERA5 surface air temperature of 15.25°C,”
October 2024 was 1.65°C above the pre-industrial level and was the 15th month in a 16-month period for which the global-average surface air temperature exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
The global average temperature for the past 12 months (November 2023-October 2024) was 0.74°C above the 1991-2020 average, and an estimated 1.62°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average.
C3S said the average sea surface temperature (SST) for October 2024 was 20.68°C, the second-highest value on record for the month, and only 0.10°C below October 2023.
“The equatorial eastern and central Pacific had below-average temperatures, indicating a move towards La Niña conditions, but SSTs across the ocean remained unusually high over many regions,” said the European weather agency.