A digital display showing the temperature at 45C outside a pharmacy in Sardinia, Italy, in July 2023.
Photographer: Francesca Volpi/Bloomberg
The Year Ahead 2024
Scientists Are Already Bracing for Record-Breaking Heat in 2024
If history is any guide, the second year of an El Niño is usually warmer than the first.
This year will be hot. Very hot. So hot that some experts are already predicting it may beat 2023 as the hottest year in recorded history.
Climate change is, of course, primarily responsible. Burning fossil fuels is increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, causing the global average temperature to rise. In 2023, the average was about 1.5C higher than the pre-industrial era; early estimates suggest this year will be up 1.3C to 1.6C.