Weather Insider: Looking back at 2024’s temperatures

While some of the numbers are still being punched, 2024 is nearly certain to go down as the hottest year on record. This would unseat the current hottest year on record of 2023. Last year's average temperature anomaly exceeded 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average. You may recall that 1.5°C (above the pre-industrial average) is the key benchmark set by the Paris Climate Accords back in 2015.

It's important to keep in mind that the 1.5°C threshold represents a long-term average, so just because 2024's temperature anomaly exceeded 1.5 does not mean we have actually crossed that threshold.

Here at home, we obviously saw a number of temperature records as well. July went down as the hottest month on record for the Coachella Valley with an average temperature (including overnight lows) of 100.0°F! This smashed the previous record for the hottest month on the books of July 2023 with an average temperature of 98.5°F And, of course, Palm Springs broke its highest temperature record with a new all-time high of 124°F!