This bar graph shows GISTEMP summer global temperature anomalies for 2023 (shown in yellow) and 2024 (shown in red). June through August is considered meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere. The white lines indicate the range of estimated temperatures. The warmer-than-usual summers continue a long-term trend of warming, driven primarily by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
NASA/Peter Jacobs
Summer 2024 is now the hottest on record, another milestone marking an accelerating global climate crisis. According to NASA, the three-month period from June through August this year averaged 0.2°F above any previously recorded summer; it eclipses the previous record set just last year, in 2023. This temperature rise has been provoked mainly by human-made greenhouse gas emissions and enhanced by El Niño.
The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) data at NASA, on the other hand, presented the summer of 2024 as 2.25°F warmer compared to the average between 1951 and 1980. Because this increase even reached 2.34°F in the solitary month of August alone, the trend has become precarious. Several of the record keepers are showing the warming of the past two years in a dead heat, but clearly above anything seen earlier,” added Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s GISS. That represents the continuation of a long-term warming trend that is driven by the emission of greenhouse gases from human activity.
Climate Change and El Niño
This unusual heat is partly because of the current El Niño event, which tends to have an overall warming effect on Earth’s temperatures. But what’s even scarier is that, even without El Niño, Earth’s baseline temperature has continued to rise due to increased carbon dioxide and methane emissions.
The rise has also been consistent in global temperatures, as recorded by several institutions such as NASA and NOAA. From data taken from the thousands of meteorological stations around the Earth and measurements of the sea surface, scientists have noted that the surface temperature in 2024 is way above the historical average.
One of the important conclusions of NASA research is the realization that the present trend in Earth warming is not new but rather part of a larger timeline of change. The planet has seen a general rise in temperature of about 2.7°F since the late 19th century, and these summer records prove that this increase in temperature is accelerating.
Statistical Analysis and New Insights
This understanding has been furthered by a new research collaboration led by scientists from the Colorado School of Mines, NOAA, and NASA. “Using the GISTEMP Surface Temperature Analysis,” says the study, “it was found that the warming we are experiencing cannot be explained away by data uncertainties or errors, but rather these temperatures represent real and concerning changes in our climate system.”.
Nathan Lenssen, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines and project scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, described NASA’s temperature data as “accurate to within one-tenth of a degree Fahrenheit.” Working off earlier efforts to take Earth’s regional and global temperatures back to 1880, the team’s new statistical technique lets researchers better account for even localized changes in temperature.
Look to the Future: Global Temperature Outlook
This record-breaking summer is part of a bigger picture: 2024 might be on track to become the hottest year on record after 2023. According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service of the European Union, July 2024 equaled 2023 as one of the hottest months in Earth’s recorded history. The different methods applied within different organizations bring slight variations, but all their signals have a strong resemblance: Earth is getting warmer in a rather unprecedented way.
Apart from that, recent research has once again confirmed that even with the temporary rise in temperatures due to El Niño, human activities remain the main culprit behind global warming. The research community warns that unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, summers like 2024 will be common and no longer an outlier.
Scorching summer data jolts global leaders and policymakers into action; drastic environmental reforms are the need of the hour. This covers a transition toward renewable sources of energy, strict emissions laws, and the conservation of natural ecosystems.
This is the hottest summer in the entire history of human civilization, and these results should be taken as a wakeup call. If there are no radical changes in policies and legislation, further generations will have to live with such conditions as permanently altered weather, the constant rise in sea levels, and the untouchable nature of the Earth’s climate system.
