Summer 2024 was the hottest on RECORD: Average global temperature was 0.69°C above average - and scientists say climate change is to blame

Summer in the UK might have been cold and rainy.

But globally, this summer was the hottest on record, according to new data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (CS3).

The average global temperature across June, July, and August was 0.69°C above average - surpassing the previous record set last year.

'During the past three months of 2024, the globe has experienced the hottest June and August, the hottest day on record, and the hottest boreal summer on record,' said Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of C3S.

'This string of record temperatures is increasing the likelihood of 2024 being the hottest year on record.'

CS3 regularly publishes data on the global climate, based on billions of measurements taken from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the word. 

Its latest data shows that August 2024 was the joint-warmest August globally, together with August 2023. 

The average global temperature was 16.82°C, which is 0.71°C above the 1991-2020 average for August.

Looking at summer as a whole (June - August), the average temperature was the highest on record at 0.69°C above the 1991-2020 average, surpassing the previous record from June–August 2023 (0.66°C).

Overall, this means 2024 is on track to be the hottest year on record. 

'The year-to-date (January–August 2024) global-average temperature anomaly is 0.70°C above the 1991-2020 average, which is the highest on record for this period and 0.23°C warmer than the same period in 2023,' CS3 explained. 

'The average anomaly for the remaining months of this year would need to drop by at least 0.30°C for 2024 not to be warmer than 2023. 

'This has never happened in the entire ERA5 dataset, making it increasingly likely that 2024 is going to be the warmest year on record.'

Several countries across the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia have faced record heat this year. 

Writing for The Conversation, Proefssor Mathew Barlow and Professor Jeffrey Basara, climate scientists from UMass Lowell, highlighted just a few of the devastating cases we've seen this year. 

'In Mexico and Central America, weeks of persistent heat starting in spring 2024 combined with prolonged drought led to severe water shortages and dozens of deaths,' they wrote. 

'Extreme heat turned into tragedy in Saudi Arabia, as over 1,000 people on the Hajj, a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, collapsed and died. Temperatures reached 125 F (51.8 C) at the Grand Mosque in Mecca on June 17.

'Hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan, were overwhelmed amid weeks of high heat, frequent power outages, and water shortages in some areas. 

'Neighboring India faced temperatures around 120 F (48.9 C) for several days in April and May that affected millions of people, many of them without air conditioning.

'Japan issued heatstroke alerts in Tokyo and more than half of its prefectures as temperatures rose to record highs in early July.

'Large parts of Europe were suffering through a long-running heat wave as the 2024 Summer Olympics prepared to open in Paris in late July.'

According to Ms Burgess, climate change is partly to blame for this record heat - and things are only set to get worse. 

'The temperature-related extreme events witnessed this summer will only become more intense, with more devastating consequences for people and the planet unless we take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,' she warned.