EU monitor says global temperatures were 1.75C above preindustrial levels, extending run of unprecedented highs
Climate scientists had expected this exceptional spell to subside after a warming El Niño event peaked in January 2024 and conditions shifted to an opposing, cooling La Niña phase. But the heat has lingered at record or near-record levels, prompting debate about what other factors could be driving it to the top end of expectations.
The clickbait part is the “D’uh” that scientists are mystified by January being hottest. No, models predicted a medium term trend caused by El Niño that didn’t seem to happen
Models are never perfect, will always be tweaked to try to improve accuracy. That’s pretty much the definition of science. There will always be something not yet accounted for, and people working to account for it. Yet that title makes it look like predictions are wrong. While that may be true in the details, from our perspective nothing has changed. Maybe this is the real problem with today’s society: technical details that always interested those of us interested in science, engineering, data, are now pushed to everyone. Most people don’t have the perspective to really understand and the clickbait headlines try to instill an outrage that is not appropriate
Why do we need to be outraged by small inaccuracies in the model that do not affect the overall prediction nor even most of the details. That will likely not be noticeable to the rest of us