UPDATE
Jul 5, 2023 6:00 PM CDT
Monday was the hottest day ever recorded, scientists said earlier this week—but the record only lasted a day. According to the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction, the average global air temperature was 17.18 degrees Celsius (62.9 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, breaking Monday's record of 1 7.0C (62.62 Fahrenheit), the Guardian reports. Scientists say that since the El Niño weather event hasn't peaked yet and July is usually the planet's hottest month, the record could be broken many more times in the weeks to come.
Jul 5, 2023 12:12 AM CDT
If July 3 was hot wherever you are, you're not alone: It was the world's hottest day on record. The average global temperature hit 17.01 degrees Celsius (62.62 Fahrenheit), passing the previous record, set in August 2016, of 16.92C (62.46F), Reuters reports. Of course, that's an average, and some places were more unbearable than others: China, India, the UK, the southern United States, and northern Mexico have experienced heat waves recently, Bloomberg reports. In North Africa, temperatures have reached as high as 122F. Meanwhile, in Antarctica, it's winter, but even there temperatures have been unusually high.
"This is not a milestone we should be celebrating," says a climate scientist. "It's a death sentence for people and ecosystems." Experts warn that as long as there's no end to the greenhouse gas emissions that warm the planet as fossil fuels are burned, temperatures will continue to climb. El Nino conditions, which have developed in the tropical Pacific for the first time in seven years, are also contributing to the heat. The World Meteorological Organization secretary-general warned Tuesday, "The onset of El Niño will greatly increase the likelihood of breaking temperature records." A second climate expert agrees: "Unfortunately, [July 3] promises to only be the first in a series of new records set this year." (More climate change stories.)
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