World temperature reached the hottest levels ever measured on Monday, beating the record that was set just one day before, data suggests.
Provisional data published on Wednesday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which holds data that stretches back to 1940, shows that the global surface air temperature reached 62.87F (17.15C), compared with 62.76F (17.09C) on Sunday.
Earlier this month, Copernicus found that global temperatures between July 2023 and July 2024 were the highest on record.
The previous record before this week was set a year ago on 6 July. Before that, the previous recorded hottest day was in 2016, according to the Associated Press.
Henson expects La Niña, which is associated with cooler temperatures, to take effect later this year and subsequently reduce average temperatures.
“Even if next year doesn’t bring similar records, we know what the long term forecast is, and that’s warmer and warmer over time,” Henson said, adding: “When you turn up the burners and leave them on for a century, you’re going to see the water boil.”
When it’s 0.1 degrees cooler next year and it gets reported as a cooling trend.
Edit: I guess that quote was from the NBC article about the same, here’s archive:
I’m glad we’re starting to talk about absolute temperature instead of temperature anomaly. I think it’s much simpler to communicate to people.
On record*. Earth was quite a bit hotter when the surface was entirely molten rock and volcanoes ;)
They were too lazy to record back then
