- The report says it is the eighth month in a row that is the warmest on record for the respective time of the year
- Global precipitation was nearly record-high in January, following on the heels of a record-wet December.
Image: FILE
A new report has shown that the planet had the warmest January ever documented.
New data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and the Japan Meteorological Agency confirms the record-breaking trend seen for much of 2023 continues in 2024.
The report says it is the eighth month in a row that is the warmest on record for the respective time of the year.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and the Japan Meteorological Agency are four of the six international datasets that feed into the World Meteorological Organisation’s State of the Climate reports.
WMO is a specialised agency of the UN whose mandate covers weather, climate and water resources.
“Sea surface temperatures have been record high for ten consecutive months. The average monthly surface air temperature was 1.66 degrees celsius warmer than an estimate of the January average for 1850–1900, the designated pre-industrial reference period,” part of the report states.
The report cites the ERA5 dataset used by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), which is implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission.
ERA5 provides hourly estimates for a large number of atmospheric, ocean-wave and land-surface quantities.
This comes even as a report by the Kenya Met shows that dry weather conditions are expected over most parts of the country, with rains over a few places in the Highlands west of the Rift Valley.
Strong south-easterly winds of over 25 knots (12.5 m/s) are expected over parts of Turkana and Marsabit counties, according to weather report issued on February 17.
The report says the rising temperatures do not, however, mean that the world has exceeded the lower-level target of 1.5° celsius above the pre-industrial era referred to in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
The Paris Agreement refers to long-term warming over many years rather than monthly or annual exceedances.
It was 0.70 degrees celcius above the 1991-2020 average for January and 0.12 degrees celcius above the temperature of the previous warmest January, in 2020, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The data reveals January 2024 as the warmest month on record globally, highlighting a stark deviation from the 30-year average.
The report also has a map visualising the significant temperature anomalies that contribute to the record-breaking warmth, signaling a clear and concerning trend in our planet's climate trajectory.
Global precipitation was nearly record-high in January, following on the heels of a record-wet December.
Large portions of North America, Asia and Australia were wetter than average, whereas much of southern Africa and South America were drier than normal.
The El Niño rainfall pattern over the central and western Pacific Ocean weakened, but patterns over Africa and the southern United States remained more typical of El Niño, according to the monthly NOAA report.
El Niño began to weaken in the equatorial Pacific, but marine air temperatures in general remained at an unusually high level, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The average global sea surface temperature for January over 60 degrees South–60 degrees North reached 20.97 degrees celcius, a record for January, 0.26 degrees celsius warmer than the previous warmest January (2016) and the second highest value for any month in the ERA5 dataset, within 0.01 degrees celsius of the record from August 2023 (20.98 degrees celsius).
Since January 31, the daily sea surface temperature for 60 degrees South–60 degrees North has reached new absolute records, surpassing the previous highest values from August 23 and 24, 2023.
The final WMO State of the Global Climate 2023 report will be published for World Meteorological Day on March 23, 2024.
WMO has already confirmed that 2023 was by far the warmest year on record due to human-induced climate change and a warming El Niño.