2024 was the Hottest Year on Record—Beating the Previous Record by a Whopping Fifth of a Degree!

Continuing the 21st century’s dubious tradition of breaking annual heat records, 2024 took one look at the previous record holder—2023—and said “hold my (well-carbonated) beer,” before breaking that record by the largest margin yet, and then went on to attain the dubious distinction of being the first full calendar year to have reached more than 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial levels—an ominous portent that doesn’t bode well for efforts to keep global temperatures within the limits set by the Paris Climate Accords.

2024’s heat record has been confirmed by each of the world’s major climate research services, including private non-profit group Berkeley Earth; the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service; the Japan Meteorological Agency; the UK’s Meteorology (Met) Office; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA); and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The consensus amongst these groups is that 2024 exceeded “the previous record just set in 2023 by a clear and definitive margin,” according to a press release issued by Berkeley Earth, a former climate change skeptic organization.

Copernicus CCS recorded the year as being 1.60°C (2.88°F) hotter than “the 1850-1900 temperature designated to be the pre-industrial level, beating 2023’s record by a full 0.12°C (0.22°F).” Berkeley Earth’s data found the planet to be marginally hotter, 1.62°C (2.91°F) above the baseline for the same time period.

Because each research team uses different datasets and reconstructions of historical temperatures—the independence of each group’s research efforts is paramount in maintaining the integrity of their respective findings—their numbers differ slightly, but are still close enough to illustrate the progress of global warming. For instance, the Japan Meteorological Agency, the UK’s Met and the WMO found 2024 to be 1.57°C (2.83°F), 1.53°C (2.75°F) and 1.55°C (2.79°F), respectively, above the pre-industrial baseline.

In the US, NASA and NOAA’s numbers—1.28°C (2.30°F) and 1.29°C (2.32°F), respectively—appear to paint a milder picture, but this is due to their use of a warmer mid-20th-century temperature baseline taken between 1951 and 1980, instead of measurements from the 19th century; however, when compared to the pre-industrial average, their findings concur with those of their international counterparts, with 2024 ranking “as the highest global temperature in the period of 1850–2024, beating the next warmest year (2023) by 0.18°F (0.10°C),” according to NOAA’s press release.

As a consequence, 2024 was marred by numerous extreme weather events: heat waves around the globe, record-breaking hurricanes and the ongoing wildfires that are currently decimating communities in Southern California are just a few of the events spurred on by the acceleration of global warming.

“Blazing temperatures in 2024 require trail-blazing climate action in 2025,” according to United Nations Secretary General António Guterres. “There’s still time to avoid the worst of climate catastrophe. But leaders must act – now.”