Due to the greenhouse gases emitted by mankind, the record global temperatures continue to break now for over a year: o June 2024 was the warmest ever recordedbroke the record of the corresponding month in 2023.

With a series of heatwaves, from Mexico to China via Saudi Arabia, June 2024 was the thirteenth consecutive month during which record average temperatures were recorded, according to data released today by the European Copernicus observatory.

With this record-breaking streak, fueled by the unprecedented ocean warmingwhich absorb 90% of excess heat due to human activity, “the average global temperature over the past 12 months (July 2023 – June 2024) is the highest ever recorded,” the Climate Change Service (C3S) said ) of the Copernicus observatory.

During this period, the average temperature was “1.64°C higher than the pre-industrial average”, from 1850 to 1900, when deforestation, the burning of coal, gas and oil had not yet led to the global warming.

June 2024 is also “the 12th consecutive month that the pre-industrial average has been exceeded by 1.5°C,” said Carlo Buodembo, director of C3S.

The 1.5°C limit is the most ambitious goal of the Paris climate agreement (2015), which was signed by almost all countries. However, this anomaly should be recorded for several decades before it can be considered that the climate has stabilized at this level.

Although the temperature has already risen by about 1.2°C compared to the period 1850-1900, the GIEC — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — predicts a 50-50 chance of exceeding that limit in the 2030- 2035 at the current rate of emissions, which are expected to peak in 2025.

In June, while the thermometer was near or below normal for the season (1991-2020), most people in France and western Europe experienced warmer, in some cases extremely warmer, temperatures.

Besides, in Saudi Arabia over 1,300 people died during the great pilgrimage to Mecca, as the temperature even reached 51.8° Celsius in the great mosque of the holy city of Islam.

In Hellas, the Acropolis had to be closed in mid-June, as the temperature exceeded 44° Celsius. In Chinathe north, including Beijing, endured temperatures above 40°C, while the south was swept by floods.

THE Kenya, Afghanistan and France they were also hit by catastrophic flooding, another phenomenon that is intensifying internationally due to global warming, as the maximum moisture in the atmosphere increases and, consequently, the potential intensity of rainfall.

At USA and Mexicodeadly heat waves in late May and early June became 35 times more likely because of climate change, the scientific reporting network World Weather Attribution (WWA) estimated.

On the front of the fires, June in Amazoniaenduring a historic drought, ended its worst six-month outbreak in 20 years, while a “state of emergency” was declared in Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul.

Another consequence of the heatwaves: the populations of the Balkans, Pakistan and Egypt suffered widespread power outages, synonymous with the fact that essential devices stopped working: ventilation systems, fans, air conditioners, refrigerators…

As the cyclical La Niña climate phenomenon, synonymous with lower global temperatures, is expected to occur by the end of the year, “we can expect the global temperature to decrease in the coming months,” C3S scientist Julien Nicolas told AFP.

The global temperature at the end of 2024 will largely depend on the evolution of the level of heat in the oceans, which cover 70% of the planet’s surface and whose surface water temperature has been clearly above all time for more than a year .

The very unusual heat on the surface of the North Atlantic thus strengthened the power of Beryl, a powerful cyclone that has caused destruction in the Antilles since July. It left behind at least seven dead in the Caribbean and Venezuela and is now threatening the US state of Texas.

“If record temperatures persist despite a La Niña event, 2024 could be warmer than 2023,” the warmest year on record, “but it’s too early to tell,” said Julien. Nicholas.