For a long time, April in Germany didn’t necessarily feel like spring: cold polar air caused temperatures to drop below freezing from the middle of the month onwards, snow fell in the low mountain ranges and the Alps, and fruit and wine growers complained of frost damage. Nevertheless, the month in this country ended up being 2.6 degrees warmer than a typical April half a century ago, the German Weather Service recently announced – a clear consequence of global warming.
Globally, April 2024 was the warmest April since weather records began, as the EU Earth observation service Copernicus has just determined. According to climate researchers, last month was 1.58 degrees warmer than in the April months in the second half of the 19th century.
This year’s April temperatures exceeded the period from 1991 to 2020 by 0.67 degrees. This is hardly surprising anymore, according to Copernicus it is the eleventh record month in a row.
For around a year now, global temperatures have been above the threshold of 1.5 degrees agreed in the Paris climate agreement, compared to pre-industrial levels.
According to the Copernicus data, it was recently too warm in Eastern Europe, North America, Greenland and most of Africa. Many countries in Asia are currently suffering from extreme heat. Bangladesh is experiencing its longest heat wave in at least 75 years, the weather service there announced a few days ago. For 30 days in a row it was at least 36 degrees in large parts of the country, most recently around 40 degrees. Within Europe, the south stands out due to the lack of precipitation: in Spain, Italy and Turkey it was drier than usual in April. Temperatures were slightly cooler than average in Scandinavia and Iceland.
The currently exceptionally hot oceans are also important for global extremes. Sea surface temperatures have set a new monthly record for the 13th consecutive year. This is despite the fact that the natural climate phenomenon El Niño, which is causing temperatures to rise in the eastern Pacific, is currently subsiding.
“Temperature fluctuations associated with natural cycles such as El Niño come and go,” Carlo Buontempo, head of Copernicus’ climate change service, was quoted as saying in a statement. However, increasing greenhouse gas concentrations mean that in the long term more energy will be captured in the oceans and atmosphere, says Buontempo. This will “continue to drive global temperatures to new records.”