April 2024 continues global record-busting streak
(CNS): Last month was the warmest April on record and the eleventh month in a row of record global temperatures, according to Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). April was also the thirteenth month in a row to topple sea surface temperature records as the world’s oceans, including the Caribbean Sea, heat up to unprecedented levels.
The month was warmer globally than any previous April on record, with an average ERA5 surface air temperature 0.67°C above the 1991-2020 average and 0.14°C above the previous high set in April 2016. C3S Director Carlo Buontempo warned that greenhouse gases were pushing up the mercury.
“El Niño peaked at the beginning of the year and the sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical pacific are now going back towards neutral conditions,” he said. “However, whilst temperature variations associated with natural cycles like El Niño come and go, the extra energy trapped into the ocean and the atmosphere by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases will keep pushing the global temperature towards new records.”
Some of the extremes over the last year, including months of record-breaking sea surface temperatures, have led scientists to investigate whether human activity has now triggered a tipping point. “I think many scientists have asked the question whether there could be a shift in the climate system,” said C3S Senior Climate Scientist Julien Nicolas.
At the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), 196 countries agreed to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels to avoid the most disastrous consequences of warming, such as fatal heat, flooding and the irreversible loss of ecosystems.
Technically, the 1.5°C target has not yet been missed, as it refers to an average global temperature over decades, not one year, but some scientists now believe this is no longer a realistic target unless the world finds a way to cut CO₂ emissions much faster.
The Cayman Islands are also suffering under the heat in what is likely to be another record-breaking year. In April, the average temperature across the Cayman Islands was 1.6°C higher than the climatological average (1991-2020), in line with the global increase.
According to the Cayman Islands National Weather Service, Cayman Brac saw an average monthly temperature of 84.5°F. The hottest day was 23 April when the temperature climbed to a roasting 91.9°F, all of which was compounded by zero rainfall. CINWS said there was not enough rain throughout the entire month to measure it, though this followed a month (March 2024) in which rainfall was well above average for that island.
On Grand Cayman, the monthly average was 83.5°F, and the hottest day was 11 April, when the temperature topped 90°F. There was just 0.9 inches of rain during the entire month, 1.33 inches below the average for April, the last month of the drier season.
Forecasters predict that May will be hot, though there are expectations that we could finally see some rain in Cayman this month.
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Category: Climate Change, Science & Nature, Weather
Hopefully the NWS’s record breaking radar outage streak will end soon. Only to be broken again shortly after it’s fixed.
I hereby predict that there will be weather in may and also in each of the remaining months of the year.
In May 2023, we had one day of 33 degrees Celsius (Friday April 5, 2023).
So far in the 16 days in May 2024, we have had 8 days of 33 degrees and 1 day of 34 degrees.
In July of last year one day we hit a record 35 degrees (July 21st). I remember getting condensation from my stovetop fan that day. Wouldnt be shocked if we hit 36 or 37 degrees this July.
The Minister for Sustainability & Climate Resiliency needs to step up legislation and enforcement to protect our islands. Retail stores in town blasting A/C with their doors wide open, trucks and cars spewing disgusting pollution from their exhausts, fast-tracking solar and wind energies. These are all things that we can do better at NOW. It just takes leadership to demonstrate that. NOW!
Fix The Damn Radar NWS totally dysfunctional 🤪🤪🤪
What is the radar going to tell you that a satellite image will not? Radar just gives microclimate rainfall images solely to assist aircraft landings and takeoffs. And most commercial airlines have onboard weather radar.
We should all be on solar and wind with only CUC burning as a backup. It’s terrible we are behind so many developed countries and we are tiny enough to implement by 2026.
I’d say the weather is erratic 🤯.
The first 10 days of May 2024 were the coldest the European part of Russia has witnessed in the history of meteorological observations there.
Two centers with different signs – an anticyclone to the west of Moscow and a cyclone to the east of Moscow – created conditions for the retraction and advection of the cold air masses of the Arctic Ocean.
Moscow’s cold snap followed the warmest April in 23 years.
April was relatively cool this year in Florida.
weather does not equal climate. Regardless of Either, more pavement and rooftops and structures is creating a heat sink.
Killing carbon eating trees and vegetation and creating unnatural concrete and asphalt heat generators seems not ideal.
And we continue to bulldoze trees, lay more asphalt, put up more concrete towers and increase garbage on mount trashmore. We need new members in parliament to stop this destruction to our islands.
No mangroves = no rain
Lol. Public school educated in Cayman no doubt.
Yes, along with the 18 (and counting) people who agree with that ignorant post.
CUC investors already checking out the new Silverados, F-150, Rams and the wife’s new Audi Q5.
warmest on record…. how far back does the record go? world has gone through higher highs and lower lows and it still here. we ain’t falling for this shock tactic to further strip us of our freedom. funny how the people championing climate change create the most greenhouse gases they claim is bad.
I knew I’d find one!
Ahhhh the familiar cry of freedom from 5:07…
I’d drop the victim mentality 5:07- it doesn’t look good on you.
18.5 minimum? cant be right?
Possible. April 19th, the day after, Grand Cayman had a low of 21 Celsius.
https://weather.com/weather/monthly/l/acdf81d6d0a1a6a4c8dd91a4322e48b418c99532ff187611c28c8ade41a805b2
Someone left their cold beer on the sensor
Someone left their cold beer on the sensor for a bit
i dont see any rain on the radar.
oh never mind
Um…check satellite images which provide the same information.
It doesn’t. There is discrete measurable data which is presented in each. Similar? Sure. Same? Not a chance.
No doubt climate changes – it has for millennia. With that being said, I think the weakening of the magnetosphere, combined with the solar maximum we are experiencing may have a lot to do with the temperatures increasing.
Just something we should perhaps consider before we start restricting travel and gas stoves.
As humorous as that sounds, it won’t be funny when all the coral and fish are gone.
Not to mention the closeness of Uranus
Are you the kind of person that says “I got my degree at the University of Life!” or “Do your own research!”?
Because you sound like that person. And they have no idea what it takes to actually have scientific expertise.
Acht, we are all moving to Scotland anyway.