Sunday was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth

The Summary

• Sunday was the hottest day ever recorded, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
• The average global temperature reached 17.09 degrees Celsius (62.76 Fahrenheit), breaking the record set last July.
• Last month was the hottest June on record globally.

Sunday was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth, according to data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. 

The average global temperature reached 17.09 degrees Celsius, or about 62.76 Fahrenheit, which is just above the record of 17.08 C set on July 6, 2023.

“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,” Carlo Buontempo, the director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement.

So far, July of this year and July 2023 were both much hotter than the average from 1991 to 2020, according to Copernicus data. Before last year, the hottest day ever recorded was Aug. 12, 2016, when the average temperature reached 16.8 degrees.

Last week, heat waves across southern and central Europe brought wildfires to southern Italy and forced Greece’s Culture Ministry to close the Acropolis for several hours, according to The Associated Press. 

In the U.S., excessive heat warnings were in effect for six states Tuesday, including Arizona, California and Montana. Officials suspect that more than 300 deaths in Maricopa County, Arizona, have been connected to heat-related illness already this year. 

Last month was the hottest June on record globally and the 13th month in a row that broke records for high temperatures, according to the Copernicus service’s monitoring.

“We’re going to have to have massive readjustments in the way in which we live our lives” as heat intensifies, said Bharat Venkat, the director of the UCLA Heat Lab, which studies the effects of rising temperatures.

As a small personal example, Venkat said he took his dog for a walk in the local mall this summer because the pavement “was so hot that I was worried she was going to burn her paws.”

He emphasized that on a larger and more serious level, “a lot of these negative impacts overlay pre-existing social inequalities.” 

People with underlying health conditions are more likely to be harmed by heat-related illness. Those who work outdoors, such as delivery workers and farmers, face greater challenges. Certain types of structures, like prisons and food trucks, retain more heat, making it especially hot for the people inside.

Global average temperatures usually peak from late June to early August, because that is generally the hottest time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, which has most of the world’s land and population.

In the Southern Hemisphere, melting sea ice in Antarctica has led to higher average temperatures, as well, the Copernicus service reported. 

This year was also especially warm because of the El Niño climate pattern, said Bob Henson, a meteorologist and climate writer for Yale Climate Connections.

La Niña, which is predicted to arrive in the coming months, should have a moderate cooling effect.

But overall, Henson said, temperatures will keep rising, and records will continue to be broken.

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