After Back-to-Back Record Temperatures: Is Global Warming Accelerating?

A temporary spike or the start of an enduring — and concerning — trend?

Anomalies and extremes in surface air temperature in 2024. Colour categories refer to the percentiles of the temperature distributions for the 1991–2020 reference period. The extreme (‘coolest’ and ‘warmest’) categories are based on rankings for 1979–2024 (Source: Copernicus)

The world’s climate models have always been works in progress, but 2024 proved an unsettling truth: even our best scientific predictions keep falling short and underestimating reality.

But why does this matter to you?

Because for a third of the world’s population, this isn’t just data — it’s their reality. The heat is affecting people all over the world and it’s becoming painfully clear that we’re not prepared for what’s already happening.

Regions across the globe are than anyone anticipated, creating mysterious hot spots where . Farmers watch crops wither under unprecedented heat. City planners and public officials scramble to protect millions from supercharged events. Insurance companies recalculate risk models that no longer work. We all need answers about our local climate future, but the models that guided our understanding of climate change are showing their limits, just when we need them most.

And the gap between global predictions and local experiences seems to be growing wider by the day.