According to Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, April 2024 marks another turning point in global warming patterns. According to Buontempo, “If you look at the temperature it’s yet again another record breaking month, and this means that the sequence, the streak of months, record breaking months that started last year in June is continuing and now we are at the 11th month, so that’s one thing and that’s true for the global mean average, it is also true for sea surface temperature.”
Copernicus, the EU’s climate change office, reported that April 2024 was the hottest on record globally. The average surface air temperature was 15.03 degrees Celsius, exceeding the April average computed between 1991 and 2020 by 0.67 degrees.
Furthermore, the temperature was 1.58% above the preindustrial reference point established at the Paris climate summit.
While Europe had its second warmest April on record, some places had even more significant temperature spikes. North America, eastern Asia, sections of the Middle East, South America, and the majority of Africa were particularly impacted.
Morocco is bracing for a heatwave that is expected to affect several provinces from Tuesday to Friday. The General Directorate of Meteorology (DGM) issued an orange notice, warning of temperatures reaching 40 to 44 degrees Celsius during this time.
This revelation comes as Morocco continues to battle with drought, which is now approaching its sixth year. Water scarcity provides considerable issues, particularly in the country’s rain-dependent agriculture industry.