EU monitor: World breaks heat record for second straight day
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Earth withered through a second-straight day of record-breaking temperatures on Tuesday, the European Union’s climate monitor said yesterday, as parts of the world suffer devastating heatwaves and wildfires.
Preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) showed the daily global average temperature was 17.15 degrees Celsius on Monday, the warmest day in recorded history.
This was 0.06 degrees hotter than the day before on Sunday, which itself broke by a small margin the all-time high temperature set only a year before.
“This is exactly what climate science told us would happen if the world continued burning coal, oil and gas,” said Joyce Kimutai, a climate scientist from Imperial College London. “And it will continue getting hotter until we stop burning fossil fuels and reach net zero emissions.”
Copernicus, which uses satellite data to update global air and sea temperatures close to real time, said its figures were provisional and final values may differ very slightly.
It anticipated daily records could keep toppling as summer peaks in the northern hemisphere, and the planet endures an extraordinary stretch of unprecedented heat on the back of the hottest-ever year.
The monitor on Tuesday said global temperatures were likely to drop soon though there could be further fluctuations.
Global warming is causing longer, stronger and more frequent extreme weather events, and this year has been marked by major disasters across the globe.
The historic heat has been felt on many continents, including Asia, North America and Europe, where heatwaves and wildfires have torn a path of destruction in recent weeks.
Fires have also ripped through the Arctic, which is warming much faster than elsewhere on the planet, while winter temperatures were well above normal in Antarctica.
Copernicus said it was less the fact daily temperature records were being rewritten than a broader pattern of never-before-seen warming that greatly worries climate scientists.
Every month since June 2023 has eclipsed its own temperature record compared to the same month in previous years, something never before seen.
The heat witnessed on Sunday and Monday only slightly exceeded the July 2023 record, but was far above the previous high of 16.8 degrees set in August 2016.
Copernicus said the 16.8-degree record has been smashed 57 times since July 2023, around the time global temperatures began a steady rise into what scientists have called unchartered territory.
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