Under the Paris climate accord, governments worldwide agreed to pursue efforts to limit global warming to below 2C and ideally 1.5C. However, the agreement’s targets refer to long-term warming over several decades, not individual months or years.
In Europe, this past April was the sixth-warmest on record, Copernicus said. Echoing other scientists’ findings, the agency also noted that much of Central Europe, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom are grappling with a lack of rainfall.
Ocean temperatures worldwide also continue to be abnormally high, the scientists said, with sea surface temperatures outside polar areas registering 20.89C — just below the April 2024 record. Hot seas intensify storms, which can then bring extreme rain and flooding when they hit land.