RUSSELS (Reuters) – The world has just experienced the second-hottest May since records began, as ​climate change and the developing El Niño weather ‌pattern conspired to push up average land and sea temperatures, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on ​Wednesday.
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The hottest May on record was in ​2024, in records going back to 1940.
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The â average global temperature last month was 1.42 degrees ​Celsius above the average in 19th-century pre-industrial times.
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Western Europe ​experienced one of the most severe heatwaves ever recorded so early in the year.
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C3S says the extreme heat in Europe ​was in line with scientists’ expectations of how ​climate change will affect the world’s fastest-warming continent.
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Parts of the ‌Pacific â Ocean recorded exceptionally high temperatures as it transitions towards El Nino conditions.
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Extreme weather last month included fatal floods in China and Turkey.
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The El Niño weather pattern is expected ​to form in ​the coming â months and to fuel extreme weather around the world.
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El Niño naturally occurs every ​two to seven years, when weakening ​trade â winds result in warmer waters in the eastern Pacific. The result tends to be higher global temperatures, and â disrupted ​rainfall, meaning drought in some ​regions, heavy rains in others.
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