Monday broke the record for the hottest day on Earth, marking the second straight day of temperatures surpassing the previous high.
Preliminary data published by the European climate service Copernicus Wednesday showed that Monday’s temp was 0.06 degrees Celsius — about 0.1 degree Fahrenheit — higher than Sunday’s temperature. This made Monday the hottest day recorded on Earth, breaking the previous record set the day before.
The global average temperature on Monday was 17.15 degrees Celsius—about 62.87 degrees Fahrenheit. This broke Sunday’s record of 17.09 degrees Celsius, which is about 62.76 degrees Fahrenheit.
Before this week, the previous record of the global average temperature was 17.08 degrees Celsius — or nearly 62.74 degrees Fahrenheit — recorded on July 6, 2023.
Copernicus Climate Change Service Director Carlo Buontempo warned that the world is in “uncharted territory” when the record was initially broken on Sunday.
"On July 21st, C3S recorded a new record for the daily global mean temperature. What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records,” he said, according to an article from Copernicus.
“We are now in truly uncharted territory and as the climate keeps warming, we are bound to see new records being broken in future months and years,” Buontempo added.
Before the 2023 record, the previous hottest day on Earth was set on Aug. 13, 2016, when the global average temperature hit 16.80 degrees Celsius — or about 62.24 degrees Fahrenheit.
Copernicus’s analysis suggested that warmer temperatures in the Antarctic region contributed to the high global average temperatures recorded this week. The analysis noted that a similar trend occurred in July 2023, when global temperatures also reached a new record.
The analysis said that it expected temperatures to peak by Tuesday before dipping down.
