Monday was the hottest day ever recordedsurpassing the record set the previous day, while countries around the world, from Japan to Bolivia or the United Statesremain under the influence of high temperatures, according to the European Climate Change Agency.
Provisional satellite data released by Copernicus Early on Wednesday they showed that Monday broke the previous day’s record by 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit (°F).
Climate scientists say the world is now as hot as it was 125,000 years ago because of man-made climate change. While they cannot say for sure that Monday was the hottest day in that period, average temperatures this high have not been seen since humans developed agriculture.
The rise in temperatures in recent decades coincides with what climatologists predicted what would happen if fossil fuels continued to be burned at an ever-increasing rate.
“We are in an era where weather and climate records are often beyond our tolerance levels, resulting in insurmountable loss of life and livelihood,” said Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.
Preliminary Copernicus data show that the global average temperature on Monday was 62.87 degrees Fahrenheit. Beyond this week’s record, the previous record was last year. Until then, The hottest day on record was in 2016, with an average temperature of 62.24 ºF.
Although 2024 has been extremely warm, what pushed temperatures to new levels on Sunday was a warmer-than-usual Antarctic winter, according to Copernicus. The same was happening in that region last year, when the record was reached in early July.
Copernicus records date back to 1940, but other global measurements by governments in the USA and the United Kingdom They date back to 1880Many scientists, taking that data into account along with tree rings and ice cores, say last year’s highs were the warmest on the planet in about 120,000 years. Now, the first six months of 2024 have matched them.
Without climate change, scientists say records for extreme temperatures would not be broken as frequently as in recent years.
Christiana Figueres, former head of the United Nations climate negotiations, noted that “We will all burn and fry” if the world does not change course immediately.
“One third of the world’s electricity can be produced by solar and wind power alone, but specific national policies need to allow for this transformation,” he said.