Monday, July 3, was the hottest day ever recorded globally, according to data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
The average global temperature reached 17.01 degrees Celsius (62.62 Fahrenheit), surpassing the August 2016 record of 16.92C (62.46F) as heatwaves sizzled around the world.
The southern United States has been suffering under an intense heat dome in recent weeks. In China, an enduring heatwave continued, with temperatures above 35C (95F).
North Africa has seen temperatures near 50C (122F), while in the Middle East, thousands suffering from unusually scorching heat during the hajj religious pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
Even Antarctica, currently in its winter, registered anomalously high temperatures. Ukraine’s Vernadsky Research Base in the white continent’s Argentine Islands recently broke its July temperature record with 8.7C (47.6F).
“This is not a milestone we should be celebrating. It’s a death sentence for people and ecosystems,” said climate scientist Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Britain’s Imperial College London.
Scientists said climate change, combined with an emerging El Nino weather pattern, were responsible. The last major El Niño was in 2016, which was the hottest year on record – until now.
