According to data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, Earth has just experienced its hottest day ever on record, July 21, 2024, thus setting a new high for the daily global average temperature at 17.09°C, the highest ever registered, beating out the previous record of 17.08°C on July 6, 2023.
This latest high, according to reports, comes just a little higher than last year’s record but underlines a broader trend. The development has been branded worrying by C3S Director Carlo Buontempo, pointing to a gaping chasm between previous records and temperatures over the past 13 months. “We are now in truly uncharted territory,” warns Buontempo, adding that as climate continues to warm up, new records are likely to be set over the next months and years.
According to the data, which can be explored in the new C3S Climate Pulse application, all of the top ten years with the highest average daily temperatures occurred in the past decade: 2015–2024. This trend underlines the acceleration in global warming, with the annual peaks of 2023 and 2024 far above those reached in earlier years.
The heatwave has not been contained. Recently, record temperatures have scorched huge swathes of the United States, Europe, and Russia. Meanwhile, a severe heat wave is also raging in Gaza, which works to further complicate the already difficult living conditions of the Palestinians following the conflict.
Scientists blame these scorching temperatures on human-induced global warming. The past 13 months have continuously been the hottest on record; each month has broken the record for that particular month in previous years. It has also been the period when the planet’s temperature reached 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, a threshold that according to the 2015 Paris Agreement, is the one governments vowed not to allow to be overshot.
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, this month of June 2024 was the warmest June ever experienced, 0.67°C above average. The sustained heat during this period has been unrelenting in raising Earth’s temperature to make it 1.64°C above pre-industrial levels within the last 12 months. Experts say breaching the 1.5°C mark for an extended period may lead to irreversible harm to the planet.
This heat streak has been further fueled by the arrival of an El Niño weather pattern this spring in 2023. El Niños generally bring warm temperatures and unruly weather, including intense storms and robust rainfall. However, per the World Meteorological Organization, this phase of El Niño is now ending to be replaced most probably later this year by a milder La Niña pattern.
This single most dominant cause, however, is human-caused global warming. Record levels of carbon emissions added to the atmosphere last year have only continued fueling it. According to Carl Buontempo from C3S, it is “inevitable” that the planet will keep warming further and hit new heat records until carbon emissions are significantly reduced.
The results of this warming trend have been devastating. Extreme heat has resulted in hundreds of deaths and widespread disruptions. In the Middle East, extreme heat reportedly killed some 1,300 people who had attended this year’s Hajj pilgrimage. Southern Europe is also experiencing harsh heat waves, resulting in deaths and power outages.
As the globe warms, the hazards that a hotter climate could bring are becoming ever more evident. Recently, extreme heat, wildfires, and droughts battered many parts of the world, providing a foretaste of what is to come under future climate scenarios if global warming is not curbed.
The record-breaking temperatures of the last 13 months are a stern warning. Barring big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the Earth is cruising toward even more extreme and dangerous heat in the years to come.