Climate change: July 3 was world's hottest day on record

Karam Prakash

New Delhi, July 5

This Monday was the hottest day globally ever recorded, according to climate scientists.

The data is from the US government’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction.

The average worldwide temperature on Monday reached 17.01°C, breaking the previous record of 16.92°C, which was set in August 2016.

Monday’s temperature was about 0.8°C hotter than the average for the time of year during the late 20th Century–a time when global temperatures had already been warmed by human activities.

The record global temperature was the result of climate change, caused by burning fossil fuels and other human activities, combined with the emerging El Nino weather pattern,according toDr Robert Rohde, lead scientist at Berkeley Earth, a US non-profit climate research organisation.

Dr Rohde predicts that the record may be broken again over the coming weeks.

According to the recentIPCC reports(A2.2), global temperatures have not been as high as they are now for 1,25,000 years.

On July 3, Texas and large parts of the southern US were being hit by very high temperatures linked with a heat dome.

Analysisfrom climate central found that such temperatures were made at least five times more likely due to human-induced climate change.Climate change made the heatwave at least five times more likely, according to a rapid assessmentby climate central.

Temperatures in North Africaapproached 50°C, as a heatwave continued – with climate change again having been amajor factor.

Ocean temperatures around the British Isles and the Nordic countriescontinued to be high, although slightly cooler than in previous weeks when anextreme marine heatwavehad threatened marine life.

The Antarctic region also experienced very high temperatures, with many stations registering positive temperatures despite the winter season.

The Vernadsky stationbroke its July temperature record, with 8.7ºC.

Friederike Otto, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, said, “This is not a milestone we should be celebrating, it’s a death sentence for people and ecosystems. And worryingly, it won’t be the hottest day for a long time. With El Niño developing, the world will likely break this record again in the coming months. We absolutely need to stop burning fossil fuels.”

Saleemul Huq, Director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Independent University, Bangladesh, “Loss and damage from human-induced climate change has arrived throughout the world with the hottest day ever. Expect many more hottest days in future.”

Zeke Hausfather, climate research lead at Stripe and research scientist at Berkeley Earth, said, “The all-time high global temperature record set on July 3 is a stark reminder of the rapid pace of climate change. Unfortunately, it promises to be only the first in a series of new records set this year, as increasing emissions of CO2 and greenhouse gases coupled with a growing El Niño event push temperatures to new highs. June was the warmest June ever recorded by a large margin, and July is on track to be the warmest July on record as well. Based on the first six months of the year, it looks increasingly likely that 2023 will end up as the overall warmest year on record.”