Matt Dillon
Earth’s hot streak has stretched to 11 months, with April 2024 breaking another global temperature record.
Indeed, it was warmer than any April on record, with records dating back to 1880. In April 2024, Earth experienced a surface air temperature of 15.03°C, 0.67°C above the 1991–2020 average for April, and 0.14°C above the previous high set in April 2016.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) says it was the 11th month in a row that was the warmest in the organisation’s data record for the respective month of the year. Although unusual, C3S says a similar streak of monthly global temperature records happened previously in 2015/16.
C3S says the month was 1.58°C warmer than an estimate of the April average for 1850–1900, the designated pre-industrial reference period.
An extended streak
According to C3S, the global-average temperature for the past 12 months (May 2023 to April 2024) is the highest on record, at 0.73°C above the 1991–2020 average and 1.61°C above the 1850–1900 pre-industrial average.
“El Niño peaked at the beginning of the year and the sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific are now going back towards neutral conditions,” says C3S Director Carlo Buontempo.
“However, whilst temperature variations associated with natural cycles like El Niño come and go, the extra energy trapped into the ocean and the atmosphere by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases will keep pushing the global temperature towards new records.”
Although some areas experienced below-average temperatures, North America, Greenland, eastern Asia, the northwest Middle East, parts of South America, and most of Africa were above average.
In Europe, the average European temperature for April 2024 was 1.49°C above the 1991–2020 average for April, making the month the second warmest April on record for the continent.
Marine air temperatures in general remained at an unusually high level.
“The high number of extreme weather and climate events – including record daily and monthly temperatures and rainfall amounts – are more likely in a warmer world,” says WMO climate expert Alvaro Silva. “The sea surface temperature in several ocean basins, including in the tropical belt, continues to be record high, releasing more heat and moisture to the atmosphere and thus exacerbating conditions.”
Design for the future
Exemplary Energy Executive Director Trevor Lee says the news about April representing the 11th month in a row of record temperatures is troubling.
“As engineers and architects, we are concerned about whether our built environment is up to the task in a changing climate,” Lee says. “In HVAC, higher temperatures and humidity levels – and greater extremes – require more energy for cooling along with higher capacity systems than what was required previously. For example, in Sydney, our analyses show that up to 4.5 per cent more cooling energy is needed now as compared to 1990.
“Like HVAC, buildings are designed for historically ‘typical’ conditions. A building designed for the climate of a decade ago will look different to something properly designed for a lifespan to 2060.”
Lee says the change in temperatures only underlines how out of date even relatively recent modelling data can become.
“Most NCC Section J modelling in Australia applies seriously outdated data, representing the average from 1990 to 2015,” he says. “We offer datasets which incorporate weather observations up to the present, but we also seek to optimise between considering a longer period to provide a stable reference baseline and a shorter, more recent period as an implicit indicator of the most likely conditions in the near future. We have applied a 15-year window that appears to fit the need and is backed by science.
“Regulators should certainly be looking closely at the option of more regular updates. Ten years is far too long. We recommend that regulators consider updating their climate data with each revision of the NCC, or at least every revision of the stringency of Section J and its NatHERS equivalent.”
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