Weather agency says China experienced hottest year on record in 2024

China’s meteorological service reported that 2024 was the country’s warmest year ever, marking a new record for the country’s temperature record-settings decade after comparable records began more than 60 years ago.

The average national temperature for 2024 was 10.92 degrees Celsius (51.66 degrees Fahrenheit), 1.03 degrees higher than 2023 and “the warmest year since the start of full records in 1961”, the China Meteorological Administration said on its news site on Wednesday night.

The administration claimed that the top ten warmest years since 1961 have occurred in the twenty-first century, making the top four years ever the previous four.

Densely populated Shanghai, China’s financial hub, recorded its warmest year in 2024 since meteorological records for the city began in 1873, data from the Shanghai meteorological bureau showed. The city’s average temperature stood at 18.8C (65.8F).

China already recorded the hottest month in observation history in July of that year, as well as the hottest August and warmest autumn ever.

State media reported that there were 240 days of residents in Guangzhou, breaking the record of 234 days set in 1994, with the average temperature being above 22C (71. 6F).

More severe storms and higher rainfall have caused dozens of people to die in China last year, and thousands of people were forced to flee their homes as a result of the country’s warmer weather.

In May, a highway in southern China collapsed after days of rain, killing 48 people, while Sichuan, Chongqing, and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River suffered from heat and drought in early autumn.

Greenpeace warned about China’s “alarming new trends in extreme heat” last year, noting that extreme heat days were occurring earlier each year and that China’s area size was growing as a result.

“As a multitude of climate impacts hit China, people’s lives and livelihoods are impacted”, the campaign group said.

In a year-end message sent on Monday, the UN stated that 2024 would be the warmest year ever to be recorded.

The increase in temperature and sea surface area is a result of global warming, which is largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Warmer air can hold more water vapour, and warmer oceans mean greater evaporation, resulting in more intense downpours and storms.

According to Swiss Re, the insurance company with the Zurich headquarters, climate-related natural disasters in 2024 will have cost an estimated $ 310 billion in economic losses.