May was the world's second-hottest on record, EU scientists say

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS, June 10 (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.

(Reporting by Kate ​Abnett; Editing by Kevin Liffey)