THE European climate agency reported today that this summer was Earth’s hottest on record.

The northern meteorological summer — June, July and August — averaged 16.8°C , according to Copernicus. 

That’s 0.03°C warmer than the old record in 2023. Copernicus records go back to 1940, but US, British and Japanese records, which start in the mid-19th century, show the last decade has been the hottest since regular measurements were taken and likely in about 120,000 years, according to some scientists.

The month of August in both 2024 and 2023 tied for the hottest August globally at 16.82°C. 

July was the first time in more than a year that the world did not set a record, a tad behind 2023, but because June 2024 was so much hotter than June 2023, this summer as a whole was the hottest, Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo said.

He said: “In order for 2024 not to become the warmest on record, we need to see very significant landscape cooling for the remaining few months, which doesn’t look likely at this stage.”

“What those sober numbers indicate is how the climate crisis is tightening its grip on us,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, who wasn’t part of the research.

Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Centre in Cape Cod, said that there’s been a deluge of extreme weather of heat, floods, wildfires and high winds that are violent and dangerous.

“Like people living in a war zone with the constant thumping of bombs and clatter of guns, we are becoming deaf to what should be alarm bells and air-raid sirens,” Francis said in an email.

Copernicus deputy director Samantha Burgess said: “Temperature-related extreme events witnessed this summer will only become more intense.”