Berlin, May 8 (EFE).- April was the 11th consecutive warmest month worldwide since records began, the European Union reported Wednesday.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service, the climate monitoring component of the European Union Space Program, said April was globally warmer than any previous April in the data record, with an average surface air temperature of 15.03C, 0.67C above the 1991-2020 average for April and 0.14C above above the previous high set in April 2016.
This was published on the monthly bulletin of the Germany-based institution published Wednesday.
Although unusual, a similar streak of monthly global temperature records previously occurred in 2015/2016.
The month was 1.58°C warmer than an estimate of the April mean for 1850-1900.
The global average temperature of the last 12 months is the highest on record, with 0.73C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.61C above the pre-industrial average of 1850-1900, .
The European average temperature for April was 1.49C higher than the 1991-2020 April average, making the month the second warmest April on record on the continent.
Temperatures were above average in the eastern regions of Europe. Fenoscandia and Iceland recorded temperatures below average.
Outside Europe, temperatures were above average in northern and northeastern North America, Greenland, eastern Asia, the northwestern Middle East, parts of South America and most of Africa.
El Nino in the eastern equatorial Pacific continued to weaken toward neutral conditions, but overall marine air temperatures remained at an unusually high level.
The averaged global sea surface temperature for April 2024 was 21.04C, the highest value recorded for the month, marginally below the 21.07C recorded for March.
This is the 13th consecutive month in which the sea surface temperature has been the warmest on record for the respective month of the year.
According to Carlo Buontempo of Copernicus Climate Change, while temperature variations associated with natural cycles such as El Nino come and go, “the extra energy trapped in the ocean and atmosphere from increasing greenhouse gas concentrations will continue pushing global temperatures toward new records.”
Meanwhile, Arctic sea ice extent was about 2 percent below average, a relatively small negative anomaly compared to April anomalies recorded over the past 10 years.
Antarctic sea ice extent was 9 percent below average, the 10th lowest extent for April in the satellite data record, continuing a pattern of frequent large negative anomalies observed since 2017.
As in February and March, sea ice concentrations were below average in the northern Weddell Sea and the Ross-Amundsen Sea sector. EFE
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