While India’s national capital Delhi experienced its coldest January in over a decade this year, Earth overall witnessed hottest ever January on record! According to the data released by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, January 2024 was the warmest month that planet Earth has ever seen since the temperature records have come into existence.
What is more alarming is that the worsening climate crisis has also pushed the 1.5-degree threshold for the first time ever. This means that it was 1.66 degrees Celsius hotter than what Earth witnessed for the pre-industrial average for the month of January.
It should be noted that since June 2023, every month has been recorded as the hottest in a year-on-year comparison. On record, 2023 was the hottest month the Earth saw as per the world records dating back to 1850. Both increased human activity as well as weather phenomenon of El Nino have spiked the surge in global temperatures.
“Not only is it the warmest January on record but we have also just experienced a 12-month period of more than 1.5 C (1.7 F) above the pre-industrial reference period,” C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess was quoted as saying by Reuters.