April breaks global heat record: EU agency

The year 2024 has seen the warmest April ever recorded globally, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Wednesday, reported Xinhua.

This April also marked the 11th month in a row that was the hottest on record, the agency said.

The average global surface air temperature hit 15.03 degrees Celsius last month, 0.67 degrees Celsius above the 1991 to 2020 April average, and 0.14 degrees Celsius higher than the previous record set eight years ago.

"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," C3S Director Carlo Buontempo said.

In Europe, temperatures were 1.49 degrees Celsius above the 1991 to 2020 April average, with eastern European regions recording the highest increases.

The findings are based on computer-generated analyses that include billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft, and weather stations around the world.

The global average temperature for the past 12 months was also the highest on record, at 1.61 degrees Celsius above the 1850 to 1900 pre-industrial average.

"There is a general concern that the current record temperatures point to an intensifying dynamic of climate change and the associated global warming," Andreas Becker from Germany's National Meteorological Service (DWD) told Xinhua on Wednesday.