World’s hottest day recorded, but land temperatures will be even higher

Sunday, July 21 was the hottest day ever recorded as a global average, according to preliminary data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, which has tracked the world’s weather patterns since 1940.

The global average surface air temperature on Sunday reached 17.09 degrees – slightly higher than the previous record set last July of 17.08 degrees – as heatwaves scorched large swaths of the United States, Europe and Russia.

People line up to take a shower on a beach in Biarritz, in south-west France.Credit: AP

Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus service, said that it was possible the beginning of this week could eclipse Sunday’s record as temperatures continued to sizzle across the world.

“When you have these peaks, they tend to cluster together,” he said.

Last year, the four days from July 3 to 6 broke the record, as climate change – driven by the burning of fossil fuels – drove extreme heat across the northern hemisphere.

While Sunday’s record was only marginally higher than last year’s reading, “what is remarkable is how different the temperature of the last 13 months is with respect to the previous records,” said Buontempo.

A woman uses a fan as she walks on a hot day in Beijing.Credit: AP

Climate expert David Karoly, Emeritus Professor at the University of Melbourne, said the record temperature was the result of extreme weather patterns exacerbated by climate change.

“Global increases in temperature have been very substantial, and the last 12 months has set a new record global average 12-month temperature of 1.64 degrees Celsius above the pre-Industrial average,” Karoly said.

“But it’s important to note that 1.64 degrees increase does not mean that the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees has been broken, because much of the warming over the last 12 months has been due to the heat associated with the El Nino event, which is now waned.”

Karoly said record daily temperatures – which included ocean surface temperatures – were largely associated with weather events like El Nino.

People pass a digital sign indicating a temperature of 42 degrees in Palma de Mallorca, Spain earlier this month.Credit: Bloomberg

Of greater concern, he said, were global land average temperatures.

“The temperature extremes that affect people are on land. And people are not fish.

“The land average temperatures are 40 to 50 per cent greater than the global average temperatures in terms of increases, and the 1½ degree Paris Agreement target for global averages will mean more than 2 degrees of land average warming.”

The Bureau of Meteorology issued severe weather warnings for south-eastern Australia on Wednesday, with showers and strong winds predicted for parts of Victoria and New South Wales.

Meteorologist Jonathan How said strong winds in Victoria would intensify on Wednesday night and into Thursday, with gusts between 100km/h and 120km/h.

In New South Wales, winds would build around the Snowy Mountains, with gusts predicted to exceed 125km/h on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.

Every month since June 2023 has now ranked as the planet’s hottest average since records began, compared with the corresponding month in previous years.

Some scientists have suggested 2024 could surpass 2023 as the hottest year since records began, as climate change and El Nino – which ended in April – have pushed temperatures ever higher this year.

“As a consequence of the increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, we are bound to see new records being broken in the next few months, in the next few years,” Buontempo said.

Scientists and environmental advocates have long called for global leaders and wealthier countries to phase out and end the reliance on fossil fuels to prevent catastrophic effects of climate change, including increased heatwaves.

with Reuters

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