While this does not mean the internationally-agreed 1.5C warming threshold has been permanently breached, the United Nations warned it was in “grave danger”.
He added: “Blazing temperatures in 2024 require trail-blazing climate action in 2025. There’s still time to avoid the worst of climate catastrophe. But leaders must act -- now.”
The United States became the latest country to report its heat record had been shattered, capping a year marked by devastating tornadoes and hurricanes.
Excess heat is supercharging extreme weather, and 2024 saw countries from Spain to Kenya, the United States and Nepal suffer disasters that cost more than $300 billion by some estimates.
- 'Stark warning' -
“My prediction is it will be the third-warmest year,“ said NASA’s top climate scientist Gavin Schmidt, citing the US determination that the year has begun with a weak La Nina, a global weather pattern that is expected to bring slight cooling.
“This means that we have likely just experienced the first calendar year with a global mean temperature of more than 1.5C above the 1850-1900 average,“ it said.
Global temperatures had soared “beyond what modern humans have ever experienced”, it said.
Still, Johan Rockstrom of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research called the milestone a “stark warning sign.”
- On the edge -
But the world remains far off track.
Scientists say every fraction of a degree above 1.5C matters -- and that beyond a certain point the climate could shift in unpredictable ways.
The death of 1,300 pilgrims in Saudi Arabia during extreme heat, a barrage of powerful tropical storms in Asia and North America, and historic flooding in Europe and Africa marked grim milestones in 2024.
The oceans, which absorb 90 percent of excess heat from greenhouse gases, warmed to record levels in 2024, straining coral reefs and marine life and stirring violent weather.
Water vapour in the atmosphere hit fresh highs in 2024, combining with elevated temperatures to trigger floods, heatwaves and “misery for millions of people”, Copernicus climate deputy director Samantha Burgess said.
But El Nino ended in early 2024, leaving them puzzled by persistently high global temperatures.
“The future is in our hands -- swift and decisive action can still alter the trajectory of our future climate,“ said Copernicus climate director Carlo Buontempo.
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