April 2024 was warmer globally than any previous April on record, according to the latest monthly bulletin from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
An average surface air temperature of 15.03°C was recorded last month, 0.67°C above the April 1991-2020 average and 0.14°C above the previous maximum set in April 2016.
This is the 11th consecutive warmest month according to the ERA5 data record for the respective month of the year. Although unusual, a similar streak of monthly global temperature records occurred in 2015/2016, Copernicus said in a statement.
1.58 DEGREES ABOVE PREINDUSTRIAL LEVELS
The month was 1.58°C warmer than an estimate of the April average for 1850-1900, the designated pre-industrial reference period.
The global average temperature for the last 12 months (May 2023-April 2024) is the highest on record, 0.73°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.61°C above the 1850 pre-industrial average -1900.
The European average temperature in April 2024 was 1.49°C higher than the 1991-2020 April average, making this month the second warmest April on record on the continent.
Temperatures were more above average in Eastern European regions. Fennoscandia and Iceland experienced below average temperatures. The average temperature, however, masks the contrast between the warmest and coldest temperatures experienced in early and late April in Western Europe.
Outside Europe, temperatures were above average in northern and northeastern North America, Greenland, eastern Asia, the northwestern Middle East, parts of South America and most of Africa.
El Niño in the eastern equatorial Pacific continued to weaken to neutral conditions, but overall marine air temperatures remained at an unusually high level.
The averaged global sea surface temperature for April 2024 between 60°S and 60°N was 21.04°C, the highest value recorded for the month, slightly below the 21.07°C recorded in March 2024.
This is the thirteenth consecutive month in which the SST has been the warmest in the ERA5 data record for the respective month of the year.
According to Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), “El Niño peaked earlier in the year and sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific are now returning to neutral conditions. However, although temperature variations associated “With natural cycles like El Niño coming and going, the extra energy trapped in the ocean and atmosphere by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases will continue to push global temperatures toward new records.”
