'Record Shattered': NASA, UN Say 2024 Became Hottest Year Ever After 15 Months Of Unprecedented Heat Streak

2024 was the hottest year on record, exceeding the previous record set in 2023. NASA estimates the year was 2.65°F (1.47°C) warmer than the mid-19th-century average.

By : ABP News Bureau | Updated at : 11 Jan 2025 12:45 AM (IST)

Global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels
Source : NASA

Hottest Year 2024: Earth's average surface temperature in 2024 was the highest on record, NASA scientists and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Friday, confirming what had been predicted months ago even as "an extraordinary streak of record-breaking temperatures" had been observed over the last ten years. Earlier, Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) published its report Friday, sharing similar findings and highlighting unprecedented global warming trends, with the year marking critical new milestones.

The WMO relied on six international datasets to declare 2024 as the "warmest year on record'. It said the last ten years had all been on list the top ten years with highest temperatures. The six datasets are from the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts, NASA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Japan Meteorological Agency, the UK’s Met Office in collaboration with the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (HadCRUT), and Berkeley Earth.

NASA said global temperatures in 2024 were 2.30°F (1.28°C) above NASA’s 20th-century baseline (1951–1980), breaking the previous record set in 2023. This milestone followed 15 consecutive months (June 2023-August 2024) of record-breaking monthly temperatures, marking an unprecedented heat streak.

“Once again, the temperature record has been shattered — 2024 was the hottest year since record keeping began in 1880,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said, adding: “Between record breaking temperatures and wildfires currently threatening our centres and workforce in California, it has never been more important to understand our changing planet.”

“Today’s assessment from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) proves yet again – global heating is a cold, hard fact,” UN Secretary-General Antóno Guterres said.

“Climate history is playing out before our eyes. We’ve had not just one or two record-breaking years, but a full ten-year series. This has been accompanied by devastating and extreme weather, rising sea levels and melting ice, all powered by record-breaking greenhouse gas levels due to human activities,” WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said.

NASA estimates that 2024 was about 2.65°F (1.47°C) warmer than the mid-19th-century average (1850–1900). 

'Blazing Temperatures In 2024 Require Trail-Blazing Climate Action In 2025'

While the Copernicus report said 2024 was the first year where the global average temperature exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for an entire calendar year, NASA said global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above the baseline for over half the year, "and the annual average, with mathematical uncertainties, may have exceeded the level for the first time".

Staying below 1.5 degrees Celsius was the climate target set in the Paris Agreement, and almost all countries had committed to consolidate their efforts towards that. "To put that in perspective, temperatures during the warm periods on Earth three million years ago — when sea levels were dozens of feet higher than today — were only around 3 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels,” Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, explained. “We are halfway to Pliocene-level warmth in just 150 years.”

Guterres, however, said one year of more than 1.5°C for a calendar year does not mean the Paris Agreement long-term climate goal has been missed: "It means we need to fight even harder to get on track. Blazing temperatures in 2024 require trail-blazing climate action in 2025.” 

He said there was "still time to avoid the worst of climate catastrophe" if leaders got their act together immediately. 

According to NASA, recent warming trends are driven by heat-trapping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. In 2022 and 2023, record carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels were observed. Atmospheric CO₂ levels have risen from about 278 parts per million in the 18th century to around 420 parts per million today.

Exceptional Heat Trends & Local Climate Impacts

Year-to-year temperatures are influenced by natural climate patterns like El Niño and La Niña. A strong El Niño in late 2023 contributed to the record-breaking heat in 2024. NASA said researchers are investigating additional factors, such as the January 2022 Tonga volcanic eruption and reduced pollution, which may have altered cloud cover and solar reflection.

“Not every year is going to break records, but the long-term trend is clear,” Schmidt said, adding: “We’re already seeing the impact in extreme rainfall, heat waves, and increased flood risk, which are going to keep getting worse as long as emissions continue.”

NASA’s temperature records are based on data from tens of thousands of meteorological stations and sea surface temperature measurements from ships and buoys. Analytical methods account for varying station coverage and urban heat effects.

A new study by scientists from NASA, NOAA, the Colorado School of Mines, and others has further validated NASA’s global and regional temperature data.

Climate changes first appear in global averages, then continentally, regionally, and now, locally, Schmidt noted. “The changes occurring in people’s everyday weather experiences have become abundantly clear.”

Published at : 11 Jan 2025 12:07 AM (IST)
Tags :
Climate Change United Nations Weather News Paris Agreement NASA Copernicus

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