Researchers at the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service have announced that summer 2024 was the hottest summer ever recorded in the northern hemisphere.

Summer 2024 hottest in 120.000 years, say scientists

"During the past three months of 2024, the globe has experienced the hottest June and August, the hottest day on record, and the hottest boreal summer on record," Copernicus Deputy Director Samantha Burgess has announced.

From June to August the average temperature across the planet was 16,8 degrees celsius. The previous record for the hottest summer was set in 2023 when global average temperatures hit 14,9 degrees. The 2023 record was already up by a “large margin” from the record before that, set in 2016.

Data used by the Copernicus Centre only stretches back to 1940. However, records from the US, UK and Japan show that the previous decade was the hottest since the mid-1800s, and according to some climate scientists, likely the hottest in 120.000 years.

How is climate change affecting Germany?

"What those sober numbers indicate is how the climate crisis is tightening its grip on us," climate scientist Stefan Rahmsdorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research told Deutsche Welle.

According to Burgess, extreme weather caused by climate change “will only become more intense” unless governments urgently introduce policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by burning fossil fuels.

2024 has already seen extreme weather events hit Germany, including serious flooding in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria in early June, which killed nine people.

When it comes to increasingly hot summer weather, the German government has released updated information about precautions to take in heatwaves. Advice includes drinking between two and three litres of water throughout the day, rescheduling intensive activities for cooler times of day and wearing a head covering and high-factor sun cream to protect your skin while outside.

However, data from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health found Germany to be the European country with the third-highest heat-attributed deaths in 2023, after Italy and Spain. Last year 6.376 people in Germany died of heat-related deaths. These generally affect people with underlying health conditions like heart and lung disease, as heat accelerates stress on the body.

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