January was warmest month since records beganThe Climate Change Service (C3S) reported this on Wednesday. Copernicusclimate monitoring component of the European space program.

The average surface air temperature worldwide in January was 13.14°C, the Bonn, Germany-based agency noted in its monthly bulletin.

This temperature exceeds the January average by 0.70°C for the period from 1991 to 2020 and beats the previous record recorded in January 2020 by 0.12°C.

At the same time, since it is located 1.66°C above the estimated average for the pre-industrial base period.

Copernicus also emphasized that this is the eighth month in a row in which the previous record recorded for that month of the year in question was broken.

Europe

In Europe, temperatures in January were significantly above the average temperature over the past three decades in the south of the continent, while they remained significantly cooler in the north.

They were also above normal in eastern Canada, northwest Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, and below normal in western Canada, the central United States and eastern Siberia.

The month was wetter than normal across northern and southeastern Europe, as well as much of the United States, Eurasia, southeastern South America, southeastern Africa and much of Australia.

By contrast, southeast and northern Spain, southern Britain and Ireland, eastern Iceland, much of Scandinavia, northwestern Russia and the eastern Balkans experienced drier weather than usual.

Outside of Europe, drought has affected parts of North America, the Maghreb, the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, southern Central Asia and Australia.

And in Chile, meteorological conditions contributed to the spread of fires.

“2024 begins with another record month. Not only is this the warmest January on record, but we have also just experienced a twelve-month period in which temperatures were more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial baseline,” said C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess.

“Rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the only way to stop rising global temperatures,” he stressed.