Last month became the hottest April on the Earth's surface since there is data, with which the planet has chained 11 consecutive months with monthly heat records, a trend that began in June 2023 with the heat of a new episode of El Niño.
This is clear from the latest climate bulletin from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), dependent on the European Commission. The bulletin, released this Wednesday, indicates that the air temperature on the planet's surface was 15.03 degrees last April, which is 0.67 more than the average for that month between 1991 and 2020, and 0. 14 above the previous warmest April, 2016.
The bulletin, released this Wednesday, indicates that the air temperature on the planet's surface was 15.03 degrees last April, which is 0.67 more than the average for that month between 1991 and 2020, and 0. 14 above the previous warmest April, 2016.
This streak of 11 consecutive months with heat records is unusual and to find another one you have to go back to between May 2015 and August 2016, when the planet was then under the effects of another powerful El Niño episode.
The historical Copernicus monthly temperature series, beginning in 1940 and analyzed by Servimedia, indicates that last April's global temperature anomaly was the twelfth highest in the record, led by September 2023 (0.93 degrees higher than normal) and followed by October, November and December of last year (0.85 degrees).
Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S, said El Niño peaked earlier this year and sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific are returning to “neutral conditions.”
“However, while temperature variations associated with natural cycles like El Niño come and go, the additional energy trapped in the ocean and atmosphere from rising greenhouse gas concentrations will continue to push global temperatures toward new records.” "he added.
In addition, last month was 1.58 degrees warmer than the estimate of the April average between 1850 and 1900, that is, the reference pre-industrial period.
The average monthly temperature of the last 12 months (May 2023 to April 2024) turned out to be the highest ever recorded, with 0.73 degrees above the average between 1991 and 2020, and 1.61 compared to the pre-industrial period between 1850 and 1900.
In Europe it was 1.49 degrees warmer than usual compared to the average between 1991 and 2020, making April 2024 the second warmest April on the continent. It was warmer than normal in parts of Eastern Europe, while Iceland and the region including Finland, Norway, part of Russia and Sweden were colder than usual.
Outside Europe, temperatures were well above average in northern and northeastern North America, Greenland, eastern Asia, the northwestern Middle East, parts of South America and most of Africa.
The El Niño phenomenon continued to weaken in the eastern equatorial Pacific, but marine air temperatures remained at an unusually high level.
In fact, the global average sea surface temperature for April 2024 between latitudes 60ºS and 60ºN - that is, the entire planet except Greenland, Antarctica and the northernmost area of America, Europe and Asia - turned out to be the highest of that month, with 21.04 degrees, just 0.03 less than the record for any month, established in March 2024.
In terms of rainfall, last April was predominantly wetter than normal across most of north-west, central and north-east Europe. Instead, it rained less than usual across almost all of the south of the continent, including large areas of eastern Spain, peninsular Italy, the western Balkans, Turkey, Ukraine and southern Russia, as well as Iceland.
Beyond Europe, April was wetter than average in regions of central, eastern and southern North America; Central Asia, the Persian Gulf countries, Far East Asia, eastern Australia and southern Brazil, with heavy rains often causing flooding.
In contrast, drier than average conditions were observed in parts of northern Mexico, around the Caspian Sea and the Tibetan Plateau, as well as almost all of Australia.
On the other hand, Arctic sea ice extent was 2% below average in April, a relatively small anomaly compared to those recorded during that month in the last decade.
As in March, sea ice concentration anomalies were mixed across the Arctic and remained above average in the Greenland Sea, a persistent feature since last October.
Meanwhile, Antarctic sea ice extent was 9% below average, the 10th lowest extent for April in the satellite data record, continuing the series of frequent negative anomalies observed since 2017.
As in February and March, sea ice concentrations were well below average in the northern Weddell Sea and the Ross-Amundsen Sea sector.
