Data from the EU’s climate monitoring service shows that June 2024 was the hottest on record, marking a 13-month streak of unprecedented global heat.

So far 2023 has been a year of extremes, from flooding in China, Brazil and Kenya to heatwaves in India, the US, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.

Hurricane Beryl, the earliest category five Atlantic hurricane on record, also tore a path of destruction through several Caribbean islands.

Is this extreme weather down to global warming?

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), managed by the European Commission, aims to provide information about temperature rises to support climate change policies.

Using datasets including ERA5, the fifth-generation European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts atmospheric reanalysis of the global climate, C3S revealed that last month was the hottest June on record and the 13th month in a row of record-breaking temperatures.

According to ERA5 data, the month was 1.5°C above the estimated June average for 1850...