People around the world suffered an average of 41 additional days of extreme heat this year due to human-caused climate change, according to a group of scientists who also claimed it caused much of the extreme weather during 2024 to worsen.
The analysis by researchers at World Weather Attribution and Climate Central comes at the end of a year that broke one climate record after another, as heat across the planet made the 2024 will probably be the hottest year on record and a series of other deadly weather events left few unscathed.
“The finding is devastating but entirely predictable: climate change did play a role, and often a major role, in most of the events we studied, causing Heat, droughts, tropical cyclones and heavy rains become more likely and intense around the world, destroying the lives and livelihoods of millions and often untold numbers of people.” Friederike Otto, head of World Weather Attribution and a climate scientist at Imperial College, told reporters about her findings. “As long as the world continues to burn fossil fuels, this will only get worse.”
Millions of people endured stifling heat this year. Northern California and Death Valley were cooked. High daytime temperatures scorched Mexico and Central America. The heat endangered already vulnerable children in West Africa. Rising temperatures in southern Europe forced Greece to close the Acropolis. In South and Southeast Asian countries, the heat forced school closures.
Earth experienced some of the hottest days on record and its hottest summer to date, with a 13-month hot streak barely broken.
To conduct their analysis of temperatures, the team of international volunteer scientists compared daily records around the world in 2024 with temperatures that would have been expected in a world without climate change.
The results have not yet been reviewed by other scientists, but the researchers employ a revised methodology. Some areas recorded 150 days or more of extreme heat due to climate change.
“The poorest and least developed countries on the planet are the places that see even higher numbers,” said Kristina Dahl, vice president of climate science at Climate Central.
And what’s worse, Heat-related deaths often go unreported.
“People don’t have to die in heat waves. But if we can’t convincingly communicate, ‘but actually a lot of people are dying,’ it’s much harder to raise awareness,” Otto noted. “Heat waves are, by far, the most lethal extreme phenomenon, and they are the extreme phenomena where climate change represents a real change.”
According to scientists, this year was a warning that The planet is getting dangerously close to the Paris Agreement’s 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit warming limit.compared to the pre-industrial average. The Earth is expected to soon surpass that threshold, although it will not be considered surpassed until it remains in place for decades.
Researchers closely examined 29 extreme weather events this year that claimed the lives of at least 3,700 people and displaced millionsand found that 26 of them had clear links to climate change.
The El Niño weather pattern, which naturally warms the Pacific Ocean and changes climate around the world, made some of these events more likely earlier in the year. But the researchers point out that most of their studies determined that climate change played a larger role than that pattern. Warm ocean waters and warmer air fueled more destructive storms, they said, while temperatures brought many record downpours.
Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center on Cape Cod who was not involved in the research, said the science and findings were solid.
“Extreme weather will continue to become more frequent, intense, destructive, costly and deadly until we can reduce the concentration of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere,” he said.
The United Nations Environment Program indicated in the fall that, if no action is taken, a significant increase in extreme weather events could be expected, as more planet-warming carbon dioxide has been sent into the atmosphere this year. by burning more fossil fuels than last year.
But deaths and damage caused by extreme weather events are not inevitable, said Julie Arrighi, program director at the Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Center who was part of the research.
“Countries can reduce these impacts by preparing for and adapting to climate change, and while the challenges faced by different countries, systems or places vary around the world, we see that each country has a role to play,” he added.