The World Meteorological Organisation declared 2024 the warmest year on record, with global temperature exceeding 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average.
Regionally, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, as part of the Australian and New Zealand-funded Climate and Ocean Support Programme in the Pacific (COSPPac,) analysed the Fifth Generation of European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis (ERA5) dataset for the Western Pacific, which revealed that 2024 was the warmest year on record not only globally but also in the Western Pacific. The data showed that the average air temperature for 2024 in the Western Pacific was 0.87°C above the 1961-1990 average.
The findings also showed that Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, and the Southern Federated States of Micronesia experienced the largest warming of all countries in the Western Pacific.
It also indicated that air temperatures during the first half of 2024 broke more records than temperatures during the second half of the year. For example, the months of January, February, March, May, August and October had their highest recorded average air temperatures in 2024. January, February, May, June, and August also broke records for maximum (daytime) air temperature. While January, February, March, May, August, September, and October broke records for minimum (night-time) air temperature. The higher number of broken records during the first half of the year occurred during a decaying El Niño event which began in 2023.
Furthermore, the results indicated that the five warmest years on record within this region have all occurred since 2016.
Chair of the Pacific Meteorological Council, Levu Antfalo said, “Pacific Island countries already face a range of development challenges and a relatively high exposure to disasters. Historical and further projected warming presents another challenging dimension that the region will need to grapple with.”
“To put it simply, the increase in Pacific average temperatures over the last 75 years has had and will continue to have significant impacts on human health, food security, the environment and energy demand. Continuous instrumentation, monitoring and measuring across all Pacific Island states in terms temperature needs to be maintained and improved as we cannot manage what we do not measure,” he added.
Since 1950, regional average air temperatures have increased by 0.1°C per decade.
