By Climate Spotlight Staff
Monday was the hottest recorded day on Earth according to provisional data published on Wednesday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Monday’s global average temperature of about 62.87 degrees Fahrenheit or 17.15 degrees Celsius, beating the record set just one day before.
Copernicus announced earlier this week that Sunday had set a record, with a global average temperature of about 62.76 degrees Fahrenheit – a day later it was announced that Monday was the hottest day since at least 1940, when records began.
Before the back-to-back records were broken this week, the previous record was set at 62.74 degrees Fahrenheit on July 6, 2023, beating out the last record that stood since 2016.
“What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records,” Carlo Buontempo, the director of Copernicus, said in a news release announcing Sunday’s record.
“We are now in truly uncharted territory,” he added.
As the unfettered extraction and production of fossil fuel globally continue to drive warning we will no doubt see new records being broken much more frequently in the coming months and years.
A key sign of ongoing global warming is the fact that the 10 years with the highest daily average temperature are the last 10 years, 2015 -2024.
If human beings continue to add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, the world will continue to see severe and prolonged heat waves. Record-breaking temperatures and extreme weather events like wildfires, droughts, and floods will become even more common.
The AR6 Synthese Report published by the IPCC in 2023 outlines the planet is likely to reach a critical point for global warming within the next decade.
Nations need to make drastic changes now – moving away from fossil fuels to prevent this dangerous overheating bound to take place if current threads persist is at the top of the list.
Warming trends are in line with other research which suggests that nearly 80% of the global population experienced atypical warmth since May 2023.
We’ve definitely felt it in the Caribbean.
