World registers hottest day ever recorded on July 21, according to preliminary data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
In a stark reminder of the escalating climate crisis, Sunday, July 21, marked the hottest day ever recorded globally, according to preliminary data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The global average surface air temperature reached a scorching 17.09 degrees Celsius, surpassing the previous record set just weeks earlier on July 6, 2023.
RELEVANT SUSTAINABLE GOALS
July 21 Was World’s Hottest Day In At Least 84 YearS
This latest temperature milestone comes amid a series of heatwaves that have swept across large parts of the United States, Europe, and Russia over the past week. The relentless rise in temperatures has led some scientists to speculate that 2024 could overtake 2023 as the hottest year on record, a grim testament to the compounding effects of climate change and the recent El Niño phenomenon.
What’s particularly alarming about the current temperature trends is the significant gap between recent readings and historical norms. Since July 3, 2023, there have been 57 days with temperatures exceeding the previous record of 16.8 degrees Celsius set in August 2016. This unprecedented streak of heat has pushed the Earth into what Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S, describes as “truly uncharted territory.”
“We are bound to see new records in the coming months and years,” Buontempo warned, highlighting the urgent need for action to address global warming.
The data reveals a troubling pattern: the ten years with the highest daily average temperatures all fall within the 2015-2024 period. This concentration of record-breaking years underscores the accelerating pace of global warming and its far-reaching impacts.
While the global average temperature typically peaks between late June and early August due to the northern hemisphere’s summer, the intensity of recent heatwaves has raised concerns about the world’s ability to meet climate goals. At the 2015 UN climate talks in Paris, world leaders committed to limiting the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
However, the recent spate of record-breaking temperatures suggests that this target is increasingly under threat. While a permanent breach of the 1.5-degree Celsius limit refers to long-term warming over a 20 or 30-year period, the current trends indicate that we may be approaching this threshold faster than anticipated.
You may also be interested in :
Despite La Niña’s Arrival, Singapore Braces For Lingering Heat
