Hottest May on record rounds out twelve-month streak

| 06/06/2024 | 20 Comments
Monthly global surface air temperature anomalies (°C) relative to 1850–1900 from January 1940 to May 2024, plotted as time series for consecutive 12-month periods spanning June to May of the following year. The last 12 months (June 2023 – May 2024) are shown with a thick red line, while all other years with thin lines shaded according to the decade, from blue (1940s) to brick red (2020s). (Data source: ERA5. Credit: C3S/ECMWF)

(CNS): It has come as no surprise to those following the trend over the last year that global average temperatures in May 2024 were the hottest for that month ever recorded. From June 2023 to May 2024, every month passed its previous temperature records as the globe continues to warm. Last month, the global average surface air temperature was 0.65°C above the 1991–2020 average, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has confirmed.

“It is shocking but not surprising that we have reached this 12-month streak,” C3C Director Carlo Buontempo said in a release about the latest data. “While this sequence of record-breaking months will eventually be interrupted, the overall signature of climate change remains and there is no sign in sight of a change in such a trend.”

Buontempo said we are living in unprecedented times. “This string of hottest months will be remembered as comparatively cold but if we manage to stabilise the concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere in the very near future, we might be able to return to these ‘cold’ temperatures by the end of the century,” he warned. 

Here in the Cayman Islands, the official data for May has yet to be published, but residents endured a very hot and dry month though the increase in rain forecasted by the CI National Weather Service arrived, and this week’s forecast is calling for an increase in thunderstorms in the coming days. Cayman is not immune to global warming, and weather patterns here are also increasingly less predictable, with longer, hotter, drier periods becoming increasingly common.

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has raised concerns about the failure of world leaders to act. “For the past year, every turn of the calendar has turned up the heat,” he said in an address this week. “Our planet is trying to tell us something. But we don’t seem to be listening. We’re shattering global temperature records and reaping the whirlwind. It’s climate crunch time. Now is the time to mobilise, act and deliver.” 

The Copernicus Climate Change Service data for May shows that the global average temperature was 1.52°C above the 1850–1900 pre-industrial average. The global average temperature for the last 12 months (June 2023 to May 2024) is the highest on record, at 0.75°C above the 1991–2020 average and 1.63°C above the 1850–1900 pre-industrial average. 


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Category: Climate Change, Science & Nature

Comments (20)

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  1. SSM345 says:

    Can’t wait for CUC to tell us all how much they’ve made in Q2 and Q3 2024……after another condescending media blitz on how we can save money whilst sweating our n*ts off and giving them what little spare change we have and the blackouts they have included with their world class service.

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  2. Anonymous says:

    Pour on some bacon grease on my skin and get a nice tan in this beautiful weather

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    • Anonymous says:

      That’s what the white kids did back in the 70s/80s. When sun tan oil was a thing. They all look like old prunes now.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    Sure it’s the hottest May ever, but it’s also the coldest May for the rest of your life… so well done humanity!

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Kenny needs to kere quiet and stop all the hot air escaping.
    The Barbados flights generated how much CO2 while empty?

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  5. Anonymous says:

    Heat high, humidity high, CUC bill high. The holy trinity.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    I thought the Eco-Anxiety brigade were moving to Scotland?

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  7. Anonymous says:

    Yeah, it is scorching in FL. And tornadoes outside the tornado alley in the US

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  8. Simon says:

    It’s great that government continues to allow developers to pave over everything so that the heat can be retained.
    Just Wonderful.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    heat and humididty in cayman from May-October is becoming unbearable.
    Nothing pleasant about being outside…

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  10. Anonymous says:

    If you hold your Bible just so and let the pages flip like a big pack of cards, you’ll get a little bit of breeze from it.

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