June has been named the hottest month on record across the globe, the EU’s climate monitor said Monday, capping half a year of wild and destructive weather from floods to heat waves.
Every month since June 2023 has eclipsed its own temperature record in a 13-month streak of unprecedented global heat, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said.
“This is more than a statistical oddity and it highlights a large and continuing shift in our climate,” said the service director, Carlo Buontempo.
“Even if this specific streak of extremes ends at some point, we are bound to see new records being broken as the climate continues to warm.”
This was “inevitable” as long as humanity kept adding heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, he said.
Last month’s global average temperature broke the previous June record set in 2023. This new high occurs in a year marked by climate extremes.
Scorching heat has affected regions from India to Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Mexico in the first half of the year.
Meanwhile, relentless rain, linked by scientists to a warming planet, has caused extensive flooding in Kenya, China, Brazil, Afghanistan, Russia, and France.
Wildfires have torched land in Greece and Canada and last week, Hurricane Beryl became the earliest category five Atlantic hurricane on record as it barrelled across several Caribbean islands.
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