Last month was the world’s hottest January on record, E.U. scientists say
Last month was the world’s warmest January on record, continuing a streak of extreme global temperatures despite a shift toward the cooling La Nina weather pattern, European Union scientists said.
BRUSSELS — Last month was the world’s warmest January on record, continuing a streak of extreme global temperatures despite a shift toward the cooling La Niña weather pattern, European Union scientists said Thursday.
January extended a run of extraordinary heat, in which 18 of the last 19 months saw an average global temperature of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, the E.U.’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said in a monthly bulletin.
That was despite the world shifting from the El Niño warming pattern — which helped make 2024 the world’s warmest year on record — and turning toward its cooler La Niña counterpart, which involves the cooling of equatorial Pacific waters, and can curb global temperatures.
“The fact that we’re still seeing record temperatures outside of the influence of El Niño is a little surprising,” said Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which runs the C3S service.
El Niño peaked more than a year ago, Burgess noted.
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