2️⃣ *Last month was the hottest January on record, Europe's climate monitor said,* despite expectations that cooler La Nina conditions might quell a streak of record-breaking global temperatures. 🌡️ 🌎 🇪🇺 The *Copernicus Climate Change Service said January was 1.75C hotter than pre-industrial times,* extending a run of history-making highs over 2023 and 2024, as *human-caused greenhouse gas emissions crank up the global thermostat.* *Climate scientists had expected* this exceptional spell to subside *after a warming El Nino event peaked in January 2024* and conditions gradually shifted to a cooling La Nina phase. But the *heat has lingered at record or near record levels ever since,* sparking debate among scientists about what other factors could be driving heating to the top end of expectations.