Just when you thought it couldn’t get any hotter: world breaks record for third time in a week
- ‘Such records are the predictable consequence … due to mankind’s greenhouse gas emissions,’ leading climate scientist Robert Rohde said
- ‘Expect many more hottest days in the future,’ Saleemul Huq, director of Bangladesh’s International Centre for Climate Change and Development, said
The world recorded its hottest day ever on Thursday, breaking previous highs set on Monday and Tuesday as global average temperatures continue to climb, according to data from the US National Centres on Environmental Prediction.
The global average temperature hit 17.23 degrees Celsius (63.01° degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday, according to the government agency.
The record comes days after intense heatwaves in the United States and China, while another killed more than 100 people in Mexico, as temperatures soar globally.
Jingxing checked in almost 43.3°C (110°F), while the merely unusually warm, like Antarctica, showed temperatures across the continent were as much as 8 degrees Fahrenheit (4.5°C) above normal this week.
The temperature is ramping up across Europe this week, too. Germany’s weather agency, DWD, has predicted highs of 37°C (99°F) on Sunday and the Health Ministry has issued a warning to vulnerable people.
World swelters to unofficial hottest day ever Monday then gets hotter Tuesday
On Thursday, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said June was the hottest month ever, smashing the previous June record in 2019 by a substantial margin.
“Such records are the predictable consequence of a short-term El Niño temperature boost coming on top of the long-term global warming trend due to mankind’s greenhouse gas emissions,” said Robert Rohde, lead scientist for climate science non-profit Berkeley Earth, on Twitter.
The El Nino weather pattern emerged this year, bringing warm sea surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean.
After the previous daily high from August 2016 was first broken on Monday, several scientists predicted more record-setting days this year.
“Expect many more hottest days in the future,” said Saleemul Huq, director of Bangladesh’s International Centre for Climate Change and Development, in a statement.
Robert Watson, a scientist and former chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said governments and the private sector “are not truly committed to address climate change”. Nor are citizens, he said.
“They demand cheap energy, cheap food and do not want to pay the true cost of food and energy,” Watson said.
Additional reporting by Associated Press.
