Earth Records Two Unwanted Milestones

Earth recorded its hottest year ever in 2024, with such a big jump that the planet temporarily passed a major climate threshold, weather monitoring agencies announced Friday. It's the first time in recorded history that the planet was above a hoped-for limit to warming for an entire year, according to measurements from four of the six teams, per the AP. Scientists say if Earth stays above the threshold long-term, it will mean increased deaths, destruction, species loss, and sea level rise from the extreme weather that accompanies warming.

• Hottest ever: Last year's global average temperature easily passed 2023's record heat and kept going. It surpassed the long-term warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit ) since the late 1800s that was called for by the 2015 Paris climate pact, according to the Europe's Copernicus Climate Service, the UK's Meteorology Office, Japan's weather agency, and the private Berkeley Earth team.

• Smidge below: Only two US government agencies had Earth below that 1.5 mark. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA had last year at 1.46 degrees Celsius (2.63 degrees Fahrenheit) and 1.47 degrees Celsius (2.65 degrees Fahrenheit).
• The others: The Copernicus team calculated 1.6 degrees Celsius of warming, Japan 1.57, and the British 1.53. Berkeley Earth—founded by a climate change skeptic—came in the hottest at 1.62 degrees. Much of the differences, which are small, stem from which ocean temperature tools are used. The World Meteorological Organization crunched the six estimates into a composite of 1.55 degrees.
• In the US: Last year was the hottest year for the United States, NOAA said. It was not only the hottest in recordkeeping that goes back to 1850, but likely the hottest for the planet in 125,000 years.
• Compounding: All of the above comes on top of a year of deadly climate catastrophes—27 billion-dollar in the US alone in 2024—and as 2025 begins with devastating wildfires in southern California.

(More climate change stories.)