This week, scientists recorded the hottest days on Earth in recent history. According to Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service, the Earth experienced an average temperature of 17.15 degrees Celsius on July 22, which beats the previous record of 17.09 degrees set just the day before. (For those who don't know the metric system, that's approximately 62 degrees Fahrenheit).
In a statement, Carlo Buontempo, the director of the Copernicus service, expressed concern about how rapidly the record breaks. On July 21, he said: "What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records. We are now in truly uncharted territory and as the climate keeps warming, we are bound to see new records being broken in future months and years."
And then, on the very next day, when the record broke again, Buontempo added: "We now have a new record, and its value is sufficiently large to indicate with some confidence that this has exceeded the record set only last year. The event is still ongoing and it is possible the date of the peak may still change, but our data suggest we may see slightly lower temperatures in the next few days."
The rapidly increasing temperature
Credit: C3S
According to data collected by Copernicus, the service recorded the 10 hottest-ever temperatures in the past 10 years. The data shows the average temperature steadily increasing beginning in 1975. While the data shows average temperatures jump above 16.5 degrees Celsius before, they drop below that temperature. However, in 2015, the average temperature jumped well above 16.5 degrees Celsius and only increased.
Experts at Copernicus explained that the global annual temperature tends to peak in late June and early August. That means it coincides with summer in the northern hemisphere. They added that "it is not completely unexpected that we are seeing global average temperatures of this magnitude" this time of year. They said their analysis of the sudden rise is related to above-average temperatures in Antarctica.
While July 21 and July 22 were the hottest days on record, experts say they are unsure if 2024 will end up ranking as the hottest year on record. They added that to date, 2024 has been warm enough to beat out 2023, but the "exceptional warmth" in the last four months of 2023 make it "too early to predict with confidence."
