BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The world has just experienced the second-hottest May since records began, as climate change and the developing El Niño weather pattern conspired to push up average land and sea temperatures, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Wednesday.
The hottest May on record was in 2024, in records going back to 1940.
The average global temperature last month was 1.42 degrees Celsius above the average in 19th-century pre-industrial times.
Western Europe experienced one of the most severe heatwaves ever recorded so early in the year.
C3S says the extreme heat in Europe was in line with scientists' expectations of how climate change will affect the world's fastest-warming continent.
Parts of the Pacific Ocean recorded exceptionally high temperatures as it transitions towards El Nino conditions.
Extreme weather last month included fatal floods in China and Turkey.
The El Niño weather pattern is expected to form in the coming months and to fuel extreme weather around the world.
El Niño naturally occurs every two to seven years, when weakening trade winds result in warmer waters in the eastern Pacific. The result tends to be higher global temperatures, and disrupted rainfall, meaning drought in some regions, heavy rains in others.