UEA Climatic Research Unit 2024 global temperature report

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Click each of the tabs below to see elements of the Climatic Research Unit (UEA) report on the global temperature during 2024.

Global temperature in 2024

Global temperature change 1850 to 2024: HadCRUT5

2024 was the warmest year on record globally and the first year that was likely more than 1.5°C above its pre-industrial levels according to the global temperature estimated jointly by UK scientists at the Met Office, the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS)
The HadCRUT5 dataset shows 2024 was 1.53 (uncertainty range 1.45 to 1.62) °C above the 1850 to 1900 baseline, commonly used as the pre-industrial level
The record breaking warmth of 2024 was almost 0.07°C above 2023’s previous record (1.46°C), which had already exceeded the previous warmest year (2016) by 0.17°C, making 2024 and 2023 the warmest and second-warmest years on record.

Annual

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Global temperature change 1850 to 2024: multiple datasets

Different groups use different ways to estimate global temperature change from millions of individual temperature observations, yet they all agree that 2024 was the warmest year on record. This illustrates how science is done, trying different approaches to check that the results are not sensitive to particular methods.
The six different teams estimate that 2024 was between 1.46 and 1.62°C above pre-industrial, confirming that the UK team's value of 1.53°C is robust

Annual (using publicly available data released on 10 January 2025)

Data available here: csv and xslx formats

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Where were the warmest temperature anomalies in 2024?

Annual

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Where were record warm temperatures observed in 2024?

Map shows where 2024 average temperatures were the warmest recorded, or second warmest, etc.

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Has global warming exceeded the Paris 1.5°C goal?

Key messages:

No, the Paris 1.5°C goal has not yet been exceeded
The Paris Climate Agreement aims to hold the increase in global temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to try to keep it closer to 1.5°C
However these goals are commonly interpreted to refer to the underlying warming averaged over more than a decade rather than to individual years
The video below illustrates how the underlying average warming is still below 1.5°C even though our data show that the individual year 2024 was likely more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial

Click play to watch the animation

Click here if the video doesn't play in your browser

Where and when was it warmer or cooler than normal during 2024?

Key messages:

Refer to the annual, seasonal and monthly maps of 2024 temperature anomalies
2024 began with anomalous warmth across the equatorial Pacific (see the DJF map) from the continuing El Niño, while Antarctica was unusually cold and most other regions were warmer than the 1961-1990 baseline (+5°C in parts of Eurasia and North America)
The El Niño dissipated over the course of the year, eventually (see the SON map) being replaced with cooler temperatures in the equatorial Pacific because as a weak La Niña event appears to have developed
The cold Antarctic temperature anomalies disappeared first in West Antarctica (see the MAM map) and then across the whole ice sheet (by JJA), though the Southern Hemisphere spring months of September and November showed patterns with both warm and cool anomalies
All continents showed some areas with temperature anomalies exceeding 2°C by the northern autumn (see SON map)
There were some strong dipoles (with notably low and high temperature anomalies in neigbouring regions) that were caused by persistent anomalies in mid-latitude atmospheric circulation, such as the blocking pattern over Europe in May.

Temperature anomaly patterns for 2024 (click an image for a larger version)

Annual

Seasons

Winter DJF

Spring MAM

Summer JJA

Autumn SON

Months

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Where has it warmed the most and the least?

What is the pattern of warming from the early 20th century up to 2024?

Observed warming has not been uniform and matches well the pattern that climate models predict
Warming has been greatest over the northern polar regions
Warming is generally greater over land than over the oceans
There is slight long-term cooling in the North Atlantic Ocean, likely linked with changes in ocean circulation

Map shows the underlying temperature change (with short-lived variability smoothed out) degrees Celsius from the 1880-1920 period up to the present-day.

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Temperature anomaly maps for every decade since the 1850s

Superimposed on the long-term warming pattern is considerable variability between decades
This is particularly noticeable over the ocean basins such as the Pacific and the North Atlantic
The early 20th century warming (compare maps from the 1910s to the 1940s) was confined mostly to the northern polar and Atlantic regions
In contrast, almost every location has warmed over the last 50 years

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2024: a record-breaking watershed year for the global climate

A joint press release from the Met Office and the University of East Anglia (UEA).

References

The main reference for the HadCRUT5 dataset is:

Morice, C.P., Kennedy, J.J., Rayner, N.A., Winn, J.P., Hogan, E., Killick, R.E., Dunn, R.J.H., Osborn, T.J., Jones, P.D., and Simpson, I.R., 2021: An updated assessment of near-surface temperature change from 1850: the HadCRUT5 dataset. Journal of Geophysical Research 126, e2019JD032361 (https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD032361).

Licenses

We hope that these datasets and images/figures are used widely.

Graphs and maps. These images are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY-4.0). You may freely share, copy, adapt and redistribute these images for both commercial and non-commercial purposes provided that you give credit to UEA. If the image already says it is from UEA, then just use it. If the image doesn't already credit UEA or if you adapt it so the UEA name is removed, then you should specifically credit UEA (e.g. "Used with permission from the University of East Anglia (UEA)").

Datasets. These datasets are made available under the Open Database License. Any rights in individual contents of the datasets are licensed under the Database Contents License under the conditions of Attribution and Share-Alike.

GLOBAL TEMPERATURE 2024

Global temperature in 2024

Global temperature change 1850 to 2024: HadCRUT5

Annual

Global temperature change 1850 to 2024: multiple datasets

Annual (using publicly available data released on 10 January 2025)

Where were the warmest temperature anomalies in 2024?

Annual

Where were record warm temperatures observed in 2024?

Map shows where 2024 average temperatures were the warmest recorded, or second warmest, etc.

Has global warming exceeded the Paris 1.5°C goal?

Click play to watch the animation

Where and when was it warmer or cooler than normal during 2024?

Temperature anomaly patterns for 2024 (click an image for a larger version)

Annual

Annual

Seasons

Winter DJF

Spring MAM

Summer JJA

Autumn SON

Months

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Where has it warmed the most and the least?

What is the pattern of warming from the early 20th century up to 2024?

Map shows the underlying temperature change (with short-lived variability smoothed out) degrees Celsius from the 1880-1920 period up to the present-day.

Temperature anomaly maps for every decade since the 1850s

2024: a record-breaking watershed year for the global climate

References