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Since early this year, climate scientists have been saying 2024 was likely to be the warmest year on record. Ten months in, it's now "virtually certain," the Copernicus Climate Change Service has announced.

This year is also virtually certain to be the first full year where global average temperatures were at least 2.7 degrees (1.5 Celsius) above preindustrial levels, said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Climate Change Service. That’s a target world leaders and climate scientists had hoped to stay below in the quest to curb rising temperatures.

“This marks a new milestone in global temperature records and should serve as a catalyst to raise ambition for the upcoming Climate Change Conference, COP29,” Burgess stated. The conference starts Monday in Azerbaijan.

The previous hottest year on record was last year.

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A 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of eastern Cuba on Sunday, causing material damage in several regions as the island continues to recover from widespread blackouts and the impact of two hurricanes over the past few weeks.

The earthquake was reported about 39 km (24 miles) south of Bartolomé Masó before noon local time, about an hour after a 5.9 magnitude quake rocked the area, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

“There have been landslides, damage to homes and power lines,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said, adding that authorities are evaluating the situation to start recovery efforts.

Pictures of Granma Province published by the state-run outlet Cubadebate showed buildings with cracks on the walls and piles of debris littering the ground.

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Climate change-induced warming is drying out the American West by not only reducing precipitation, but also by accelerating evaporation — even amid adequate rainfall, a new study has found.

Evaporation accounted for 61 percent of the region’s drought severity from 2020 to 2022, while reduced precipitation was responsible for just 39 percent of these conditions, according to the study, published Wednesday in Science Advances.

Historically, drought in the U.S. West was driven by a lack of rainfall, while evaporative demand — the amount of water that the atmosphere can absorb from the Earth’s surface — has only played a small role, the study authors noted.

But climate change caused by burning fossil fuels has brought about higher average atmospheric temperatures and has increased the contributions of evaporation to drought severity, the researchers explained.

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Fast-moving fires erupted across California on Wednesday as the state was lashed by powerful winds that complicated firefighting efforts, necessitated power shutoffs and raised the danger for more ignitions.

Just hours after igniting in Ventura county, the Mountain fire rapidly swept through more than 10,000 acres as flames jumped into rural and residential communities tucked close to the burning hillsides, leaving devastation in its wake.

“It has hopscotched over several ridgelines and is now burning structure to structure in neighborhoods,” climate scientist Daniel Swain said in an online broadcast, calling the event a “suburban fire storm” that could rank among the most destructive in California this year. “And the fire is still spreading.”

Fueled by gusts of up to 80mph, the fire spewed flames and embers up to 2.5 miles out, making it difficult and dangerous to fight. Every firefighting resource in the area has been thrown at the fire, according to Ventura county fire chief Dustin Gardner, who added that is is “still moving at a dangerous rate of spread”. By Wednesday evening, the fire remained at 0% containment.

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Tropical Storm Rafael gained hurricane status Tuesday evening as it churned in the warm Caribbean waters on the way to the Cayman Islands and Cuba before heading for the Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said.

Rafael’s wind speeds increased to 75 mph, just above the threshold for a Category 1 hurricane, the NHC said in at 7:20 p.m. ET update. Officials in the U.S. are monitoring the storm for potential impacts to the Gulf Coast.

Rafael swiped west of Jamaica on Tuesday afternoon before continuing on a northwest trajectory. Jamaican authorities opened four emergency shelters but reported no deaths or injuries despite the heavy rain.

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Tropical Storm Rafael formed in the Caribbean on Monday, a storm that's predicted to intensify into a hurricane and threaten the U.S. Gulf Coast by this weekend, the National Hurricane Center said.

However, given significant uncertainties in the long-range forecast track and intensity, it is too soon to determine what, if any, impacts could occur in the U.S., the hurricane center said.

"There has never been a tropical storm or hurricane landfall in Texas, Louisiana or Mississippi during November and December. So that would be quite a milestone, but this does not mean that people along the central and western Gulf Coast should let their guard down," AccuWeather lead hurricane expert Alex DaSilva said.

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New York’s mayor urged residents to take shorter showers, fix dripping faucets and otherwise conserve water, issuing a drought watch Saturday after a parched October in the city and in much of the United States.

A drought watch is the first of three potential levels of water-saving directives, and Eric Adams pitched it in a social media video as a step to try to ward off the possibility of a worse shortage in the United States’ most populous city.

He ordered all city agencies to get ready to implement their water-conservation plans, and asked the public to do its part by, for example, turning off taps while brushing teeth and sweeping sidewalks instead of hosing them down.

“Mother Nature is in charge, and so we must make sure we adjust,” said Adams, a Democrat.

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An earthquake shook off the Oregon coast Wednesday afternoon.

The earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean, more than 170 miles west of Bandon, Oregon at 1:15 p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The temblor, which was recorded at a depth of over 6 miles, measured a preliminary magnitude of 6.0.

It was not immediately clear if there was any damage.

There is no tsunami danger off the coast of Oregon, the National Weather Service in Seattle confirmed.

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