Copernicus: May 2024, streak of global records for surface air and ocean temperatures continues (2024)

Newsflash

Bonn, 06/06/2024

Daily sea surface temperature (°C) averaged over the extra-polar global ocean (60°S–60°N) for all 12-month periods spanning June to May of the following year. The last 12 months (June 2023 to May 2024) are shown with a thick red line, the period from June 2015 to May 2016 with a blue line, and the period from June 2022 to May 2023 with an orange line. All other years are shown with thin grey lines. The light-red colour shading highlights the margin by which daily values in 2023–2024 exceeded previous daily records. Data source: ERA5. Credit: Copernicus Climate Change Service/ECMWF.
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The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission with funding from the EU, routinely publishes monthly climate bulletins reporting on the changes observed in global surface air and sea temperatures, sea ice cover and hydrological variables. Additionally, the bulletin also includes highlights regarding the boreal spring (March-April-May). Most of the reported findings are based on the ERA5 reanalysis dataset, using billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.

May 2024 – Surface air temperature and sea surface temperature highlights:

• May 2024 was warmer globally than any previous May in the data record, with an average ERA5 surface air temperature of 15.91°C, 0.65°C above the 1991-2020 average for May and 0.19°C above the previous high set in May 2020. 

• This is the twelfth month in a row that is the warmest in the ERA5 data record for the respective month of the year. While unusual, a similar streak of monthly global temperature records happened previously in 2015/2016.

• The month was 1.52°C above the estimated May average for 1850-1900, the designated pre-industrial reference period.

• The global-average temperature for the past 12 months (June 2023 – May 2024) is the highest on record, at 0.75°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.63°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average. 

• The average European temperature for May 2024 was 0.88°C above the 1991-2020 average for May, and the third warmest May on record for the continent.

• Temperatures were below average over the eastern equatorial Pacific, indicating a developing La Niña, but air temperatures over the ocean remained at an unusually high level over many regions.

• The sea surface temperature (SST) averaged for May 2024 over 60°S–60°N was 20.93°C, the highest value on record for the month.

• This is the fourteenth month in a row that the SST has been the warmest in the ERA5 data record for the respective month of the year.

  Global surface air temperature anomalies (°C) from January 1979 to May 2024 shown separately for each calendar month. Anomalies are relative to the average for the 1991–2020 reference period. Source: ERA5. Credit: Copernicus Climate Change Service/ECMWF.
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According to Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S): "The climate continues to alarm us - the last 12 months have broken records like never before - caused primarily by our greenhouse gas emissions and an added boost from the El Niño event in the tropical Pacific. Until we reach net-zero global emissions the climate will continue to warm, will continue to break records, and will continue to produce even more extreme weather events. If we choose to continue to add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere then 2023/4 will soon look like a cool year, in a similar way to how 2015/6 now appears."

Anomalies and extremes in surface air temperature for the 12-month period from June 2023 to May 2024. Colour categories refer to the percentiles of the temperature distributions for the 1991–2020 reference period. The extreme (“Coolest” and “Warmest”) categories are based on rankings for the period 1979–2024. Percentiles and rankings are relative to all 12-month averages between January 1979 and May 2024. Data source: ERA5. Credit: Copernicus Climate Change Service/ECMWF.
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For additional graphics and data on May temperature, please visit the statement released along with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Secretary General (UNSG) on Wednesday 5th here.

May 2024 – Hydrological highlights

• May 2024 was wetter than average over much of Iceland, UK and Ireland, central and most of south-eastern Europe, north of Iberian Peninsula and western Russia. Heavy rainfall led to widespread flooding and associated damage over Germany, the Benelux, and Italy, amongst other regions.

• Much of the Iberian Peninsula, southwest Türkiye and a large region across Eastern Europe, including southern Fennoscandia and the Baltic Countries, were drier than average.

• In May 2024, it was wetter than average over parts of USA and Canada. In southwestern Asia, Afghanistan experienced exceptional precipitation and flooding. Typhoons affected Japan, northern Philippines and southern China. Further wetter-than-average regions include part of Australia and southeastern Africa. Southern Brazil saw heavy precipitation aggravating April’s severe floods.

• Drier-than-average conditions were seen in northern Mexico, and regions of the USA, and Canada, which saw wildfires, as well as across Asia, over much of Australia, southern Africa and South America.

May 2024 – Sea Ice highlights

• Arctic sea ice extent was only slightly below average, as it was in May 2022 and 2023.

• Antarctic sea ice extent was 8% below average, the 6th lowest extent for May in the satellite data record, markedly smaller in magnitude than the record -17% observed in May 2023.

2024 Boreal Spring Seasonal Highlights

• The global average temperature for March-May 2024 was a record 0.68°C above the 1991-2020 average for these three months.

• The European average temperature for spring (March-May) 2024 was the highest on record for the season, 1.50°C warmer than the 1991-2020 average for the season and 0.36°C warmer than the previous warmest European spring, in 2014. 

• European spring 2024 was wetter than average over much of western Europe, Italy, westernmost Russia and part of the southern Caucasus as well as parts of the Iberian Peninsula and southern Fennoscandia. Record seasonal precipitation was recorded in parts of France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Ireland.

• Conversely, it was drier than average in northern Scandinavia, most of Eastern Europe and eastern Spain.

• Beyond Europe, March to May 2024 was wetter than average in parts of North America, over the Arabian Peninsula, parts of southwest and central Asia, Japan, and eastern China. Austral autumn was wetter than average over most of Australia, eastern southern Africa and southern Brazil.

• Drier-than-average regions include south-western and parts of inland USA and Canada, west of the Caspian Sea, across central Asia and southernmost China, regions of Australia, most of South America and southern Africa.

  - End -

More Information

More information about climate variables in May and climate updates of previous months as well as high-resolution graphics can be downloaded here.You can read more about the streak of monthly temperature records in this article.

Study " Indicators of Global Climate Change 2023” just released and co-authored by scientists of the Copernicus Climate Change Service here.

Answers to frequently asked questions regarding temperature monitoring can be found here.

Temperature monitoring FAQs

Follow near-real-time data for the globe on Climate Pulse here.

More on trends and projections on Climate Atlas here.

Information about the C3S data set and how it is compiled:

Temperature and hydrological maps and data are from ECMWF Copernicus Climate Change Service’s ERA5 dataset.

Sea ice maps and data are from a combination of information from ERA5, as well as from the EUMETSAT OSI SAF Sea Ice Index v2.1, Sea Ice Concentration CDR/ICDR v2 and fast-track data provided upon request by OSI SAF.

Regional area averages quoted here are the following longitude/latitude bounds:

Globe, 180W-180E, 90S-90N, over land and ocean surfaces.

Europe, 25W-40E, 34N-72N, over land surfaces only.

About the Data and Analysis

Information on national records and impacts:

Information on national records and impacts are based on national and regional reports. For details see the respective temperature and hydrological C3S climate bulletin for the month.

C3S has followed the recommendation of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to use the most recent 30-year period for calculating climatological averages and changed to the reference period of 1991-2020 for its C3S Climate Bulletins covering January 2021 onward. Figures and graphics for both the new and previous period (1981-2010) are provided for transparency.

More information on the reference period

About Copernicus and ECMWF

Copernicus is a component of the European Union’s space programme, with funding by the EU, and is its flagship Earth observation programme, which operates through six thematic services: Atmosphere, Marine, Land, Climate Change, Security and Emergency. It delivers freely accessible operational data and services providing users with reliable and up-to-date information related to our planet and its environment. The programme is coordinated and managed by the European Commission and implemented in partnership with the Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), EU Agencies and Mercator Océan, amongst others. 

ECMWF operates two services from the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation programme: the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). They also contribute to the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS), which is implemented by the EU Joint Research Centre (JRC). The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 35 states. It is both a research institute and a 24/7 operational service, producing and disseminating numerical weather predictions to its Member States. This data is fully available to the national meteorological services in the Member States. The supercomputer facility (and associated data archive) at ECMWF is one of the largest of its type in Europe and Member States can use 25% of its capacity for their own purposes. 

ECMWF has expanded its location across its Member States for some activities. In addition to an HQ in the UK and Computing Centre in Italy, offices with a focus on activities conducted in partnership with the EU, such as Copernicus, are in Bonn, Germany. 

 
The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service website can be found at http://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/ 

The Copernicus Climate Change Service website can be found at https://climate.copernicus.eu/ 

More information on Copernicus: www.copernicus.eu 

The ECMWF website can be found at https://www.ecmwf.int/ 

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