Earth sweats to its hottest day on record Monday, breaking record set the day before
Preliminary data by Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) shows that the average planetary temperature reached 17.15 degrees Celsius (62.87 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday, the day after breaking the record on Sunday at 17.09 degrees Celsius (62.76 degrees Fahrenheit).
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Monday was measured as the hottest day ever recorded on Earth as the planet’s temperature keeps rising in a world of climate change.
The previous record lasted 24 hours, set on Sunday.
Preliminary data by Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) shows that the average planetary temperature reached 17.15 degrees Celsius (62.87 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday, the day after breaking the record on Sunday at 17.09 degrees Celsius (62.76 degrees Fahrenheit).
This chart shows daily averages of global mean near-surface air temperature absolute values from the ERA5 global reanalysis dataset, from January 1940 up to two days behind real-time.
(C3S/ECMWF)
Before this week, the record had stood for a year, set on July 6, 2023, at 17.08 degrees Celsius (62.74 degrees Fahrenheit). The C3S data analysis stretches back to 1940.
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"What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records," C3S Director Carlo Buontempo said in a news release announcing the record.
Before July 2023’s record, the top measurement was 16.8 degrees Celsius (62.24 degrees Fahrenheit) set in August 2016. But since July 2023, Earth has exceeded that previous record’s threshold 57 times.
"We are now in truly uncharted territory," Buontempo said. "And as the climate keeps warming, we are bound to see new records being broken in future months and years."
Crayons melt in Las Vegas on July 7, 2024, as the city reaches 120 degrees, smashing its all-time record high temperature by 3 degrees.
(NWS Las Vegas)
Another sign of the planet’s warming trend is that the 10 years with the highest daily average temperatures are the last 10 years, from 2015 to 2024, the C3S report stated.
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The C3S says the global average tends to peak each year between late June and early August as the Northern Hemisphere and its large land masses heat up more in its summer than the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere can cool during its corresponding winter.
While multiple heat records have been broken across the Northern Hemisphere this summer, including more than a dozen all-time heat records so far just in the U.S., the sudden jump this week in the global average is heavily weighted by significant warming over Antarctica, the researchers noted.
Antarctic sea remains nearly as low as it was last summer, leading to significantly above-average temperatures over parts of the Southern Ocean, researchers said.
This chart shows daily averages of global mean sea-surface temperature absolute values from the ERA5 global reanalysis dataset, from January 1979 up to two days behind real-time.
(C3S/ECMWF)
Meanwhile, global ocean temperatures have been broiling at record levels for months on end – especially in the Atlantic Ocean basin – only just recently dipping below last summer’s record-smashing levels to currently settle into second place.
Researchers say it’ll be close as to whether 2024’s heat will topple 2023 to become the new hottest year on record. Current trends have it neck and neck, but researchers said the final four months of 2023 had "exceptional warmth" that may be tough to beat.