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

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.