The record-warm May 2024 reached a global average of 15.91 °C. This is 0.65 °C above the 1991−2020 average and 0.19 °C above the previous high of May 2020. The month was 1.52 °C warmer than the pre-industrial May average of 1850−1900.
Bar graph of global monthly temperature since January 1979
Fig. 2: Global monthly temperature from January 1979 to May 2024, shown as deviation from the 1991−2020 average. The black bars indicate the May months. Source: Copernicus.
The global overview
May temperatures were well above the 1991−2020 average in much of northern and eastern Canada, northeast Asia, Africa and Antarctica.
Heat waves occurred in Mexico and neighboring Texas and Central America. In parts of Pakistan and northern India, daily highs reached 50°C or more. Southern Brazil was hit by severe flooding.
May temperatures remained well below average in Greenland, western Russia, northwestern North America, southern South America and parts of Antarctica. Chile reported the coldest May in more than seventy years. Observation data from Argentina for the first 27 days of May indicate the coldest May since 1961.
Third warmest May in Europe
On average across Europe, May rose 0.88 °C above the 1991−2020 average. Averaged across Europe, it was the third warmest May in the Copernicus dataset since 1979. The record May heat comes from 2018 at 2.07 °C above average.
In most parts of Northern Europe, May temperatures were well above the 1991-2020 average. Norway reported the second warmest May on record. It was also the second warmest May in large parts of Sweden. Finland experienced a heatwave in the last week of the month, which is a very rare event for the time of year.
In the United Kingdom, it was the warmest May in the philippines mobile database national dataset dating back to 1884, according to an initial provisional analysis.
European map showing temperature distribution in May
Fig. 3: Spatial distribution of May 2024 temperature in Europe as a deviation from the 1991‒2020 average in °C. Source: Copernicus.
The air temperature over the oceans
The air temperature was above average over most duplicate a wordpress site with a plugin: is it possible? parts of the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean and a large part of the Pacific.
Below-average values were recorded over the eastern equatorial Pacific and over several other relatively small areas of the world’s oceans. The air temperature remained significantly below average in a agent email list larger sea area around Chile and Argentina, which extends into the subtropical eastern Pacific, as well as in a band from Antarctica to New Zealand.
record high sea surface temperature
The high air temperature over the oceans was associated with sustained record sea surface temperatures for the time of year. In the area between 60° South and 60° North, a May average of 20.93°C was recorded, setting a new monthly record in the Copernicus dataset from 1979. It was the fourteenth month in a row that brought a monthly record for sea surface temperature.