For the first time in history, the year 2024 has been named the hottest year ever. It largely surpassed the pre-industrial level of 1.5 C and recorded a staggering 2.3 C on the Richter scale. The claim has been made by the Copernicus Climate Change organization from Europe who recently made the announcement on Friday. This news comes to light at the same time when California, particularly Los Angeles, is experiencing a series of wildfires which modern scientists are blaming on climate change for exacerbating the situation.

It is quite alarming how this heat level surged so rapidly, what caused it?

The spike in the global heat profile is being blamed on the continuation of greenhouse gas emissions being registered by humanity and the burning of fossil fuels. Major emmiters around the world making a transition towards net zero emission is one thing that can possibly alter the current temperature dynamic to halt the warming. It is worth noting that Copernicus forecasts are consistent with other global temperature data sets which ranked 2024 as the hottest year since measurements began in 1850.

The global mean annual temperature in 2024 was approximately 1.6°C (36.88°F) more than the average temperature range in the late 19th century level being deemed as the pre industrial levels. The previous year on the date of July 22, the daily global temperature average peaked at 17.16, which was unprecedentedly higher op the graphite levels.

The state of our planet hasn’t been this extreme before.

The director in charge, Carlo Buontempo noted that the world is close to surpassing the level of 1.5 degrees Celsius which is agreed upon in the Paris Accord, Along with this Buontempo stated that By the end of the last decade 10 of the world’s warmest years were recorded according to research and statistics compiled by the Copernicus program

The high levels of global atmospheric water vapour due to high temperatures coupled with exhaust such as carbon dioxide penetrated in high quantities to the atmosphere led to severe heat waves and increased precipitation events which in turn impacted a large number of the population.

Estimating the global average surface temperature is no mean feat. The methods vary between organisations, but the overall picture is the same: 2024 was the world’s hottest year on record.