Ireland weather: 2024 'virtually certain' to be warmest year yet
New data from Copernicus estimates it will also be the first year over 1.5 degrees of global heating
Europe's climate change service has found 2024 is 'virtually certain' to be the first full year of 1.5 degrees above pre industrial levels and the warmest on record. Copernicus analysed billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world to complete its latest dataset.
According to their calculations, the average temperature anomaly for the rest of the year would have to drop to almost zero for 2024 not to be the warmest on record.
It comes as Met Eireann said Ireland is experiencing very mild weather for November with high temperatures between 14-19 across the country.
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Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said: "After 10 months of 2024 it is now virtually certain that 2024 will be the warmest year on record and the first year of more than 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels according to the ERA5 dataset.
"This marks a new milestone in global temperature records and should serve as a catalyst to raise ambition for the upcoming Climate Change Conference, COP29."
Copernicus data shows October 2024 was the second-warmest October globally (behind October 2023) with an average air temperature of 15.25 degrees, while in Europe it was the fifth warmest October on record at 1.23°C above the 1991-2020 average.
Temperatures across Europe were mostly above average, while there was above average rains last month across the Iberian Peninsula, France, northern Italy, Norway, northern Sweden, east of the Black Sea and the region around Valencia, Spain which led to severe flash flooding with over 200 fatalities.
Meanwhile Arctic sea ice was 19% below average and sea surface temperatures reached their second highest value on record for October, at just 0.10°C below October 2023.
We will be bringing all the latest updates from the COP29 climate summit in Baku with support from Global Ireland. You can follow our environment correspondent on the ground @ShaunaReports on X.
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