Last month was the hottest January ever recorded in the world, continuing a series of extreme global temperatures, despite a change towards the climate standard of La Niña cooling. The information was confirmed by European Union scientists on Thursday (6).
January has extended an extraordinary heat series, in which 18 of the last 19 months recorded an average global temperature of more than 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial times, the Block’s Copenicus (C3S) climate change service (C3S) reported in a bulletin monthly.
This happens although the world is changing from the climate standard of heating El Niño – which has helped to make 2024 O – and turning to its colder counterpart, which involves cooling the waters of the Equatorial Pacific and can reduce global temperatures.
“The fact that we are still seeing record temperatures out of the influence of El Niño is a bit surprising,” said Samantha Burgess, a strategic leader of the European Center for Medium -term weather forecasts, which manages the C3S service.
He hit the peak over a year ago, he noted Samantha.
The average global temperature in January was 1.75 ° C above the pre-industrial average.
Copernicus evaluates that La Niña has not yet developed completely, and the world is currently in neutral conditions between the two phases. Other data models may vary, with United States scientists indicating last month that La Niña’s conditions had formed.
But even though La Niña arises completely, Samantha said her cooling effect may not be sufficient to reduce global temperatures – which are also affected by factors such as extremely high temperatures seen in other oceanic basins and the main factor in climate change: which retain the heat.
“By far, the biggest factor that contributes to the warming of the climate is the burning of fossil fuels,” she said.
Scientists at Berkley Earth and UK Met Office said they expect 2025 to be the third cooler year ever – colder than 2024 and 2023 because of the change towards La Niña, although there are still uncertainties about how the phenomenon if the phenomenon will develop.
Globally, the average sea surface temperatures in January were the highest records ever recorded for the month, exceeded only by January 2024.
