The summer of 2024 was the hottest on record.Copernicus' alarm:«Increasingly intense and frequent extreme events»

In June, July and August, global temperatures were 0.69°C higher than the three-decade average

The boreal summer just ended – that is, the months of June, July and August – was the hottest ever recorded.This was announced by the service dedicated to climate change Copernicus, the Earth observation program funded by the European Union.“This series of record temperatures is increasing the likelihood that 2024 will be the warmest year on record,” comments Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the service.“The extreme temperature events observed this summer – adds the scientist – will only become more intense, with more devastating consequences for people and the planet, unless we take urgent measures to reduce emissions”.

The new temperature record

In June, July and August 2024, the global average temperature was the highest ever recorded and stood at 0.69°C above the 1991-2020 average, surpassing the previous record set last year (+0. 66°C).Europe, as scientists have been saying for some time now, is warming at an even faster pace than other parts of the world.In the last three months, the temperature in the Old Continent was 1.54°C above the average of the last three decades, surpassing the 2022 record (1.34°C).The months of June, July and August were particularly rainy in western and northern Europe, while some regions of the Mediterranean - including Sicily and Sardinia - had to deal with a long period of drought and very little rainfall.Outside of Europe, countries recording above-average temperatures include Mexico, Canada, northeast Africa, Iran, China, Japan and Australia.While in the eastern United States, far eastern Russia, parts of South America and Pakistan, temperatures were lower than the average for the past three decades.

The role of climate change in drought in Sicily and Sardinia

The data released today by Copernicus are just the latest alarm bell on the advance of the climate crisis, caused mainly by the use of fossil fuels.A process that is already there for all to see, especially in those countries - like Italy - which are warming at a faster rate than the global average.According to a study by World Weather Attribution, the main organization in the world that deals with establishing connections between extreme weather events and the climate crisis, the drought that hit Sicily and Sardinia in recent months has been made 50% more likely precisely from climate change.In a world not heated by fossil fuels, and therefore with an average temperature about 1.3 degrees centigrade lower than the current one, the drought in the two Italian regions would have been classified only as "severe" and not "extreme".The most distressing result of the study, however, concerns future prospects.According to the WWA, a further increase in global temperature of 0.7 degrees would be enough to increase the risk of an "exceptional" drought, the highest level of the classification scale, occurring in Sicily.

On the cover:Lake Piana degli Albanesi, in Sicily, reduced to a puddle by drought, 29 July 2024 (ANSA/Igor Petyx)