November 2024 was Earth’s second warmest month in 175 years of record-keeping, and the year is all but certain to be the warmest
on record, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Average worldwide land and ocean surface temperatures
for the month were 2.41 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 55.2 degree average in the 20th-century. Only last November, which was 0.14 degrees warmer, surpassed this year.
The month was also the second-warmest recorded for Oceania and South America while in Asia, it was the warmest on record.
For the first 11 months of the year, the global land and ocean surface temperature was 2.3 degrees warmer than the last century’s average, the warmest recorded temperature for the first 11 months of the year and for every continent excluding Asia. Based on data from the National Centers for Environmental Information’s (NCEI) Global Annual Temperature Rankings Outlook, there is only a 1 percent chance 2024 will fall short of the record.
NOAA also found that last month, Arctic sea ice extent was the third-lowest ever recorded for November, while coverage was the overall lowest ever recorded for both the Antarctic and the globe in general.
The report comes just over a month after the agency determined
that October 2024 was both the second-warmest and second-driest October ever recorded in the U.S. after 1963, with an average temperature
nearly 5 degrees warmer than that of the 20th century.
Meanwhile, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service drew similar conclusions in November, saying that not only was October the second-warmest ever recorded after 2023 but also that 2024 is likely to be the warmest ever recorded.
The service also found October was the 15th of the last 16 months in which the global average surface air temperature was above the 1.5 degrees Celsius identified as the warming threshold
by the Paris Climate Agreement.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and incoming border czar Tom Homan swapped words of praise Thursday, after the two former law enforcement officers met to discuss the scope of collaboration on deportations between the city and the incoming Trump administration.
Homan, who has become a conservative media darling making multiple appearances per week, compared Adams to other Democratic state and local leaders during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s
Fox News show Thursday night.
“Look, I sat down with the mayor for well over an hour. He gets it. And today he proved that as the mayor in New York City, he’s more concerned with public safety than politics. I wish the mayor of Chicago and the San Diego City council mayor and Governor Pritzker, I wish they’d all take a page out of Mayor Eric Adams’ playbook,” said Homan.
Homan, a multi-year veteran of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who hung up his tactical gear and jumped into the political fray during the Trump administration, is expected to take on the role of border czar, a semi-official, non-Senate confirmed role.
Though the name implies a focus on the border, Homan’s role during the transition has been to amplify the projected size and reach of Trump’s interior mass deportation plans, straddling the line between threatening an all-out approach against all undocumented immigrants and promising a criminals-first strategy.
“From what I heard from the incoming head of ICE is that we have the same desire, to go after those who are committing violent acts, repeated violent acts, among innocent New Yorkers and among migrants and asylum seekers. That’s what I heard from him and I was pleased to hear that because we share the same desire,” said Adams, incorrectly identifying Homan, who led ICE between 2017 and 2018, as the incoming head of the agency.
But Homan has repeatedly said the new Trump administration will target all undocumented immigrants, even those with immediate U.S. citizen family members, a group Homan has suggested should leave the country if they want to avoid separation from their deported relatives.
In an interview segment
on the “Dr. Phil Podcast” published Thursday, Homan laid out his vision of how undocumented parents of U.S. citizen children should be treated.
“If you choose to have an American child while you’re in this country illegally, shame on you. You put yourself in that position, and I removed them despite some yelling even from Republican senators. The law is the law and we’re not going to bend it,” said Homan.
New Jersey Assemblyman Brian Bergen (R) responded to White House national security spokesperson John Kirby’s remarks about the increase in unidentified drones
flying over the state, calling him an “idiot” and a “fool.”
“That guy is an idiot. That I can tell you right now,” Bergen, a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot, said Thursday evening in an interview on Fox News.
His criticism comes as an uptick in reported drone sightings
above the Garden State have alarmed residents and lawmakers alike, with Gov. Phil Murphy
(D) saying on Monday
that he is taking the matter “deadly seriously.” However, Kirby has seemingly brushed off concerns, telling reporters earlier Thursday that the drones are “manned aircraft” that are “being operated lawfully.”
‘That guy, I don’t even know his name, who was on here a couple of minutes ago, is a fool if he is going to say there is no issue,” Bergen said, responding to a clip from Kirby’s remarks at Thursday’s White House press briefing.
Another local official, mayor Sam Morris of Mine Hill, N.J., has also spoken out
against Kirby’s remarks that the drones do not pose a national security threat, calling the dismissive comments “ridiculous.”
“I would invite Mr. Kirby to Mine Hill. ‘Come on out, Mr. Kirby, and let’s go on out one night about 9:3-10 o’clock. I’ll go out behind my town hall. And you can count them with me all night,’” he told ABC News.
On Thursday, a group of senators from New Jersey and New York sent a letter
to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI, asking for a briefing on the drones hovering over the skies at night.
The drones are currently being investigated by the FBI, although the Department of Defense has said
there was “no evidence” that the unidentified drones are a result of a foreign entity or “the work of an adversary.”
