April 2024 was warmer globally than any previous April in the data record according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
C3S is implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission with funding from the EU.
It routinely publishes monthly climate bulletins reporting on the changes observed in global surface air and sea temperatures, sea ice cover and hydrological variables.
All the reported findings are based on computer-generated analyses using billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.
April 2024
According to the C3S, April 2024 was warmer globally than any previous April in the data record, with an average 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.
This is the 11th 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 1.58°C warmer than an estimate of the April average for 1850-1900, the designated pre-industrial reference period.
Global temperatures
The global-average temperature for the past 12 months (May 2023 – 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.
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.
Temperatures were most above average in eastern European regions. Fennoscandia and Iceland experienced below-average temperatures.
The mean temperature, however, masks the contrast between warmer and colder temperatures experienced at the start and latter part of April in western Europe, according to the C3S.
Outside Europe, temperatures were most above average over northern and north-eastern North America, Greenland, eastern Asia, north-west Middle East, parts of South America, and most of Africa.
The El Nino in the eastern equatorial Pacific continued to weaken towards neutral conditions, but marine air temperatures in general remained at an unusually high level.
The global sea surface temperature (SST) averaged for April 2024 over 60°S–60°N was 21.04°C, the highest value on record for the month, marginally below the 21.07°C recorded for March 2024.
This is the 13th month in a row that the SST has been the warmest in the ERA5 data record for the respective month of the year.
According to Carlo Buontempo, director of the C3S: “El Nino peaked at the beginning of the year and the sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical pacific are now going back towards neutral conditions.
“However, whilst temperature variations associated with natural cycles like El Nino 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.”
Rain
In April 2024, it was predominantly wetter than average over most of north-western, central and north-eastern Europe.
Most of southern Europe, including large parts of eastern Spain, peninsular Italy, the western Balkans, Turkey, Ukraine and southern Russia, as well as Iceland, were drier than average.
In April 2024, conditions were wetter than average over regions of the central, eastern and southern North America, across Central Asia, the Persian Gulf countries, easternmost Asia, eastern Australia, southern Brazil; heavy rainfall often led to floods.
Drier-than-average conditions were seen in parts of northern Mexico, around the Caspian Sea and the Tibetan Plateau. Most of Australia was also drier than average.
