Sunday was the hottest day on record, according to preliminary data from a climate monitoring agency that has monitored temperatures since the mid-20th century.
It’s the second year in a row that global average temperatures have broken shocking climate records, and it won’t be the last, as planet-warming fossil fuel pollution drives temperatures to shocking new highs.
July 21 registered 17.09 degrees Celsius, or 62.76 Fahrenheit, and was the hottest day on Earth since at least 1940, according to preliminary data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Global average temperatures typically peak during the Northern Hemisphere summer, between late June and early August.
Sunday’s record came at a time when many countries are facing prolonged and brutal heat waves. About a hundred cities in the US are facing its hottest summer start recorded, and areas of southern Europe were struggling with triple-digit temperatures.
Despite being based on data from the mid-20th century, temperature records represent the hottest period the planet has ever seen. in at least 100,000 yearsscientists have discovered climate data spanning many millennia extracted from ice cores and coral reefs.
Global climate records are typically broken by small fractions of a degree, as was the case with this one: Sunday’s temperature was just 0.01 degrees Celsius above the 2023 record.
What’s shocking is that the hottest global temperatures were significantly lower by about 0.3 degrees before 2023.
“We are now in truly uncharted territory and as the climate continues to warm, we will see new records being broken in the coming months and years,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus.
These recent records are “truly surprising,” Buontempo said. “We are now in truly uncharted territory, and as the climate continues to warm, we will see new records being broken in the coming months and years.”
Global temperatures fluctuate based on natural factors: seasons, large-scale weather patterns, and solar activity — and on unnatural factors: pollution resulting from human activity, including the burning of fossil fuels, which is primarily steadily raising the temperature of the world. planet.
Scientists attributed last year’s record to the coincidence of El Niño, a natural climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean with a warming effect, and fossil fuel pollution, which is trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere.
This year’s record comes at a time when El Niño is fading and transitioning into its cold La Niña phase, underlining the significant influence of the man-made climate crisis.
The sudden rise in global temperatures is linked to abnormal heat in large parts of Antarctica, according to Copernicus analysis. The rapid warming of this vast, icy continent is a trend that is alarming scientists given the region’s capacity to conduct catastrophic sea level rise.
For more news and newsletters from CNN, create an account at CNN.com
