“They’re not just numbers” – 2024-09-06 08:14:26

In northern Finland, August was the warmest in the history of measurements at many observation stations. Pete Anikari

Temperature records are also being broken worldwide, as the last 12 months have been the warmest 12-month period in the history of measurements in the world, says the Finnish Meteorological Institute. August eclipsed the global monthly heat record.

According to information from the Copernicus climate service, the average temperature in August was 16.82 degrees worldwide. The figure is 0.71 degrees more than the average August temperature of the climatic reference period 1991–2020. This year’s August was as warm as August 2023, which broke the heat record in measurement history.

The global average temperature between September 2023 and August 2024 was 0.76 degrees higher than in the climatic reference period. Compared to pre-industrial times, the average temperature was as much as 1.64 degrees warmer.

– Over the past year or so, many temperature records have been broken, but they are not just numbers. High temperatures have a concrete effect on the well-being of people and nature through, for example, heat waves, droughts and wildfires, Department Director of the Finnish Meteorological Institute Hannele Korhonen says in the announcement.

According to Korhonen, the negative effects of climate change will inevitably grow in the coming decades, because global greenhouse emissions have not been cut enough.

A record was set in Finland

Finland’s past summer (June–August) had an average temperature of 16.2 degrees, which is the shared highest result in the measurement history. Only the summer of 1937 was as warm.

High temperatures were clearly most visible in Lapland, where August was exceptional at all observation stations.

In Central and Northern Lapland, August was the warmest in the station’s observation history at most of the observation stations. The highest temperature of the month, 28.4 degrees, was measured at Utsjoki Kevo on August 7.

– Although the weather conditions in Finland are characterized by variation from year to year, it is clear that global warming is a key factor behind the observed heat records. A similar meteorological summer, say 70 years ago, would have been much cooler than this summer, says Korhonen.