According to the European Union's climate change monitoring service, the world just had its warmest March on record, ending a 10-month streak in which every month set a new temperature record.
According to a monthly bulletin from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), every one of the past 10 months has been the hottest on record globally when compared to the corresponding month in prior years.
According to C3S, the year that ended in March was also the hottest year on record for the planet. The average global temperature between April 2023 and March 2024 was 1.58 degrees Celsius higher than that of the pre-industrial era between 1850 and 1900.
"We are extremely concerned about the long-term trend with exceptional records," Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of C3S, told Reuters.
"Month after month, records like these really show us that our climate is changing, and changing quickly," the speaker continued.
The scientists cross-checked the 1940-era C3S dataset with additional data to verify that March of this year was the hottest since the pre-industrial era.
By far, the hottest year on Earth since global records date back to 1850 was 2023. This year's severe weather and unusually high temperatures have caused havoc.
A record number of wildfires broke out in Venezuela from January to March due to drought brought on by climate change in the Amazon rainforest, while millions of people in Southern Africa went hungry as a result of crop destruction caused by the same drought.
Additionally, marine scientists issued a warning last month that the Southern Hemisphere is probably experiencing the greatest coral bleaching event in recorded Earth history, due to warming waters.
According to C3S, greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity were the main cause of the unusual heat. El Nino, a weather pattern that warms the surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, is one of the other factors driving up temperatures.
El Nino reached its maximum in December and January and is currently waning, which could contribute to a break in the hot streak by year's end.
However, even though El Nino lessened in March, marine air temperatures remained abnormally high and the average global sea surface temperature reached a record high for any month on record, according to C3S.
"Fossil fuel emissions are the primary cause of global warming," stated Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at the Grantham Institute of Imperial College London.
According to Otto, if these emissions are not reduced, the planet will continue to warm, causing more intense heatwaves, fires, droughts, and heavy rainfall.
