Warning as world breaks hottest day record for second day in a row

Temperature records have tumbled twice this week and experts have warned the new record could be topped again soon.

The world recorded its hottest day in history on Monday, beating out the previous hottest day set just one day earlier.

The average global temperature reached 17.15 degrees Celsius on Monday July 22, according to preliminary data dating back from 1940 from the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

It comes after the global average temperature hit 17.09 degrees Celsius on Sunday – a slight increase on the previous record of 17.08 degrees Celsius recorded on July 6, 2023.

“What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records,” Copernicus Climate Change Service director Carlo Buontempo said in a statement regarding Sunday’s record.

“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.”

Monday was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth. Picture: Copernicus Climate Change Service

University of Melbourne climate scientist Dr Andrew King told news.com.au the back-to-back record was concerning.

“There is something about breaking a record and then the very next day breaking the record again. It’s quite alarming,” Dr King said.

With June warmer than average and this month proving to be another warm July, he said it’s possible Monday’s record might quickly be broken.

“I wouldn’t rule it out,” he said, before noting global average temperatures peak in July due to the heating of the land in the in the northern hemisphere over summer.

“We are seeing warming in lots of places including in Australia. We’re also seeing lots of other ways the world is changing around us such as the loss of sea ice around Antarctica and in the Arctic and sea levels rising,” he said.

Dr King said El Nino, which ended earlier his year, also played a part.

Average surface air temperature recorded globally on July 21, reached 17.09 degrees Celsius. Picture: Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu/Getty

“El Nino does increase the global average temperature slightly. When we have El Nino conditions, we have warm waters across the central and eastern Pacific, and that’s quite a large part of the world,” he said.

“Having warm waters influences the weather in other parts of the world as well.”

In Australia, 2023 marked the eighth equal warmest year on record, with the average temperature rising by almost one degree Celsius, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Dr King said 2024 will likely become the world’s warmest year on record, beating out last year, when global average temperatures rose 1.52 degrees Celsius above average temperatures between 1850 and 1900.

Originally published as Warning as world breaks hottest day record for second day in a row