On July 22, Earth endured a second consecutive day of record-breaking temperatures, according to the EU’s climate monitor. This comes as various regions worldwide grapple with severe heatwaves and wildfires.
Preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) indicated that the global average temperature reached 17.15 degrees Celsius (62.9 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday, marking the hottest day ever recorded.
This temperature was 0.06 degrees Celsius higher than the previous day, July 21, which had already set a new record, narrowly surpassing the previous all-time high established just a year earlier.
“This is precisely what climate science has predicted would happen if the world continued to burn coal, oil, and gas,” stated Joyce Kimutai, a climate scientist from Imperial College London.
“And it will keep getting hotter until we cease burning fossil fuels and achieve net zero emissions,” she added.
Copernicus, which utilizes satellite data to update global air and sea temperatures in near real-time, stated that its figures are provisional and that final values may vary slightly.
The organization anticipated that daily records might continue to be broken as summer reaches its peak in the Northern Hemisphere, with the planet experiencing an extraordinary period of unprecedented heat following the hottest year on record.
On Tuesday, the monitor indicated that global temperatures were expected to decrease soon, although further fluctuations could still occur.
Global warming is contributing to longer, stronger, and more frequent extreme weather events. This year has seen significant disasters worldwide.
The historic heat has impacted many continents, including Asia, North America, and Europe, where recent weeks have been marked by heatwaves and wildfires causing extensive destruction.
Fires have also devastated the Arctic, which is warming much faster than other regions on the planet, while winter temperatures in Antarctica were significantly above normal.
- ‘Alarming Temperatures’ –
Copernicus emphasized that the concern lies not just in the breaking of daily temperature records but in a broader pattern of unprecedented warming that deeply troubles climate scientists.
Every month since June 2023 has set new temperature records compared to the same months in previous years, an unprecedented phenomenon.
The heat experienced on Sunday and Monday only marginally surpassed the July 2023 record but was significantly higher than the previous peak of 16.8°C set in August 2016.
Copernicus reported that the 16.8°C record has been broken 57 times since July 2023, marking a period during which global temperatures have consistently risen into what scientists describe as uncharted territory.
“The term ‘unprecedented’ no longer suffices to describe the extreme temperatures we are now experiencing,” stated Christiana Figueres, former head of the UN’s climate change body, on Wednesday.
While Copernicus records date back to 1940, additional climate data from sources like ice cores, tree rings, and coral skeletons enable scientists to draw conclusions extending much further into the past.
Climate scientists assert that the current period is likely the warmest Earth has experienced in the last 100,000 years, dating back to the onset of the last Ice Age.
The primary driver of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels, resulting in the continuous rise of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions despite global efforts to mitigate temperature increases.
On Tuesday, Copernicus indicated that 2024 could surpass 2023 as the hottest year on record, although it cautioned that it is “too early to predict with confidence.”