The Earth has just experienced its hottest day on record, scientists from the EU climate change programme have revealed.
On Sunday (July 21), the global average temperature reached 17.09 °C (62.76 °F), just surpassing the previous record of 17.08 °C (62.74 °F) set on July 6, 2023.
This makes it the hottest day since at least 1940, when records began.
The scientists stress that this new average takes into account the entire planet, not just the United Kingdom or a specific area.
Worryingly, they say human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are to blame for the heat, describing the new record as a “climate change footprint.”
Earth has just experienced its warmest day in recent history, according to data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
According to the The EU Copernicus programme Climate change According to the National Weather Service (C3S), the 10 years with the highest average daily temperatures are the last 10 years, from 2015 to 2024.
“What’s really amazing is how big the difference is between the temperature of the past 13 months and previous temperature records,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S.
‘We are now in truly uncharted territory and as the climate continues to warm, we are sure to see new records in the months and years ahead.’
The climate service recently revealed that June 2024 was the 13th consecutive record-breaking month.
In other words, every month since June 2023 has been the warmest on record for that particular month, indicating an ongoing warming trend.
“It’s certainly a worrying sign coming after 13 consecutive months of record-breaking temperatures,” said Dr. Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth.
Dr. Hausfather now estimates there is a 92 percent chance that 2024 will overtake 2023 as the warmest year on record.
This map shows where Earth experienced extremes in heat on July 21, the hottest day on Earth, compared to the 1991-2020 reference period.
A tourist drinks water to cool off while visiting the Acropolis as a prolonged heatwave hits Athens, July 21, 2024
C3S, managed by the European Commission, analyses temperature readings based on a variety of platforms and instruments, from weather stations to weather balloons and satellites.
The department’s readings refer to the average air temperature for the entire planet over the entire year, meaning they are lower than a single, typically “warm” temperature reading.
Sunday and The previous record from last year Both break a previous record of 62.24 °F (16.8 °C), set on August 13, 2016.
Other years with record hot days include 2022, 2019, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2015, 1998, 2011 and 2009.
The fact that these hottest days of the year are higher than in previous years on record (for example, in the 1970s and 1980s) is a worrying symptom of man-made climate change, according to scientists.
The fact that the “hottest day of the year” has increased so much since the beginning of the century is a worrying symptom of man-made climate change, scientists say.
This chart shows the hottest days of the year for each year since 1974. Notice how the last 10 years have been much higher, compared to before the turn of the century.
People on Wimbledon Common, London, on the hottest day on record globally: 21 July 2024
Firefighters here try to extinguish a fire inside the courtyard of a house in the suburb of Trilofos, near the city of Thessaloniki, Greece, July 18, 2024.
While 2024 has been an extremely warm year, what kicked off a new era on Sunday was a warmer-than-usual Antarctic winter, according to CS3.
The same thing happened on the southern continent last year, when the record was set in early July.
But other factors include especially high temperatures in inland California, which reached triple-digit Fahrenheit temperatures, complicating more than two dozen fires in the western United States.
At the same time, Europe was suffering its own deadly heatwave, with wildfires raging in Greece and Croatia.
Experts point to the fossil fuel industry, which emits greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methane by burning fossil fuels like coal, gas and oil.
“Warming will continue as long as we keep emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and we have the technology to largely stop doing so today,” said Texas A&M University climate scientist Andrew Dessler.
Professor Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, said the difference between this year’s record and last year’s is so small and preliminary that he is surprised the European climate agency is promoting it.
“We should never compare absolute temperatures of individual days,” said Professor Mann.
A firefighter hoses down the garage of a home that was destroyed by the Hawarden Fire in Riverside, California, Sunday, July 21, 2024.
Tourists arrive on top of a bus at the Acropolis as a prolonged heatwave peaks in Athens, July 21, 2024
But Professor Victor Gensini, a climate scientist at Northern Illinois University, said “what’s really striking” is that recent years have been much warmer than previous records.
More than 30,500 days have passed since Copernicus data began in 1940, and Sunday is the warmest of them all, Professor Gensini said.
“It’s certainly a footprint of climate change,” he said.
Looking at the UK alone, Friday was the hottest day of the year so far, according to the Met Office, while 2023 was the second-warmest year since records began in 1884.
Last week brought a welcome break for Britons after a wet start to the month which saw the country hit with 97 per cent of the month’s average rainfall.