In oceans and on land, from Colombia to China, and from the north to south pole, records for the monthly average temperature were smashed time and time again last year – in some cases, by as much as 5C (9F) hotter than the previous record.
The Guardian took the average temperatures for each month in 2024, as recorded by the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), and compared them with the hottest month since 1979.
In August 2024, a large swath of Antarctica broke temperature records for that month, with temperatures up to 6.5C above the previous record.
For every month from January to June 2024, the earth experienced its hottest ever average monthly temperature.
South America was hit by record-breaking monthly air temperatures in almost every month of 2024, but through March to June temperatures were consistently extreme in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and the Amazonas state of Brazil.
