A Scorched 2024 in Review: Record-setting heat extremes took a rising toll

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From shuttered classrooms around the world to Saudi Arabia’s brutal death toll from heat during The Hajj, worsening temperature extremes in 2024 brought serious impacts, costs, and challenges for millions of people.

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In July, United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, put a fine point on the current state of rising global temperatures; “Extreme heat is increasingly tearing through economies, widening inequalities, undermining the Sustainable Development Goals and killing people. It is estimated to kill almost half a million people a year, that’s about 30 times more than tropical cyclones.”

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The summer of 2024 was the hottest ever recorded across the northern hemisphere, with countries from Egypt to Laos to Costa Rica setting new temperature highs, according to data from Europe’s climate change service, Copernicus. 

 

In the United States, Las Vegas set a new record of 120° F/49° C in July, while temperatures in California’s Palm Springs reached 124° F/51° C.

 

Spring and summer heat extremes - combined with a September and October that were both the second hottest on record globally - made 2024 the planet’s hottest recorded year, beating 2023. 

 

2024 was also the first full year that global average temperatures passed +1.5° C - the temperature rise limit set in the Paris Agreement.

 

What were the impacts of accelerating heat extremes around the world?

 

Pilgrimage deaths

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During a mid-June heatwave that coincided with Saudi Arabia’s annual Hajj in Mecca - which drew 1.8 million Islamic pilgrims this year - more than 1,300 pilgrims died, with Saudi state television reporting temperatures above 50° C/122° F.

 

The Hajj pilgrims - many of whom Saudi officials said were not officially authorised to attend the events - came from countries as diverse as Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Iraq, and Senegal.

 

With next year’s Hajj also scheduled for June, this year’s death toll points to the rising risk of mass gatherings during extremely hot conditions, whether they are concerts, sporting events or religious gatherings, experts said.

 

Closed schools

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Soaring summer temperatures closed schools for safety reasons around the world, with 26 million children in Pakistan - or half of its students - out of classes for a week in May.

 

Bangladesh similarly saw more than 33 million students temporarily pushed out of classrooms as all its schools closed in April when temperatures soared past 40°C/104°F. South Sudan and the Philippines also saw significant heat-related school closures. The disruption and cost associated with parents leaving work and making arrangements for children’s care is but a portion of the impact when schools have to close. Further, the loss of instruction and classroom may result in learning gaps and reduced academic achievement.

 

In the United States, schools in states such as Massachusetts and New York ended the school year early, cancelled classes or shortened the school day because of severe heat conditions.

 

The number of days that U.S. schools cancel classes annually because of excessive heat has risen from 3-4 days a decade ago to 6-7 days in recent years, according to a 2021 study, which given the accelerated, record-breaking temperatures of 2022, 2023, and 2024 – the number of days is likely even higher now.

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As the number of hot school days rises, more than 13,700 public schools in the U.S. that did not need cooling systems in 1970 will have installed them, or will need to by 2025, at a cost of more than $40 billion, the study said.

 

But many classrooms in the United States and around the world still lack adequate cooling - and increasingly extreme heat presents a growing and fundamental risk to education, with research finding that a 1-degree Fahrenheit increase in classroom temperature during a school year can lead to a roughly 1% loss in learning. 

 

Heatstroke

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As temperatures pushed to a record 49°C/120°F in New Delhi in May, India reported 40,000 suspected summer heatstroke cases across the country.

 

Officially, the death toll from summer heat was 360 or more in India - but most heat-related deaths in jurisdictions across the globe do not have the cause recorded, and only come to light as experts later compare the total death rate in hot periods to normal death rates.

 

One analysis of news reports, however, suggested the death toll from heat stroke in India was at least 700 this year. 

 

In Tokyo, which saw record temperatures in July, at least 120 people died of heatstroke, many of them elderly people, Japanese officials said.

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And in Mexico, at least 125 people perished from heat-related causes through June, according to the country’s health ministry.

 

This year rising cases of heatstroke and other heat-related illness affected a growing range of countries and communities around the world, interfering with and reducing spending and revenue for everything from tourism to major sporting events.

 

Tourist deaths

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During a June heatwave, at least six tourists died in Greece, including Michael Mosley, a well-known British doctor and TV personality who created and starred in programs on medical issues. He perished after losing his way on a rocky, exposed hiking path as temperatures hit 37° C on what was supposed to be a short walk to the next town.

 

Tourists also died this summer in the American West as temperatures soared, with California for example experiencing the hottest weather in 130 years. Stockton, Redding, and San Jose also had their hottest meteorological summers on record. Other states that broke records for their hottest summers in 2024 included: Arizona, Florida, Maine, and New Hampshire.

 

A survey by the European Travel Commission found that 17 percent of Europeans are now avoiding traveling to places with increasingly severe temperatures.

 

 

Power outages

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In July, Hurricane Beryl blew ashore in Texas and knocked out electricity for days for almost 3 million people. At least 36 residents died, unable to turn on their air conditioning amid sweltering temperatures, medical examiners said.

 

As more areas of the world become reliant on mechanical air conditioning to combat extreme heat, power failures - driven by excessive consumer and business demand, storm damage, fires or other threats - risk leaving many more people exposed to heat extremes, often with little notice, analysts say.

 

Summer Olympics

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Paris, the host of the 2024 Summer Olympics, saw temperatures hit 36°C/97°F on the first Tuesday of the competition, leading to complaints from overheated athletes, including gymnast Simon Biles.

 

Organisers used water hoses to spray scorched spectators at the beach volleyball competition, while other fans at the games flocked to misting devices and tennis players got extra breaks to cool down.

 

But athletes say accelerating heat extremes mean Olympians - used to pushing themselves to their physical limits in competitions - are at growing risk, and heat fatalities could soon happen.

 

Sebastian Coe, a gold medal-winning former Olympic middle-distance runner and the president of World Athletics, said extreme heat and tough sporting competitions are a perilous mix.

 

“While global temperatures continue to rise, climate change should increasingly be viewed as an existential threat to sport,” he wrote in a paper released ahead of the Paris games.

 

looking ahead

 

As the fossil fuel emissions that drive climate change and roast society continue to rise –the heat will also rise. Scientists say they expect continued - and worse - heat extremes in 2025 and beyond.

 

The unyielding heatwaves of 2024 offer a preview of a world burning - a sobering reminder that this deadly heat is a harbinger of the future that we can – and must - urgently confront.