According to climatic data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction, the 4th of July this year was the hottest day on record. However, some experts believe yesterday also must have set a new record by being one of the hottest days on Earth in the previous 125,000 years, give or take a century or two.
Global average temperatures reached a searing 62.92 degrees Fahrenheit (17.178°C), the highest since at least 1979, when scientists began tracking daily average temperatures.
The hottest day temperature increase is the result of a combination of global warming, summer heating up north of the equator, and the return of the El Niño weather pattern, which is fueling the fires.
What’s more, earlier, July 3 was the warmest day — a frightening record that was broken the very following day. The previous record high average temperature was 62.46 degrees Fahrenheit on August 14, 2016.
This previous record was also set during an El Nino year, a scorching twelve months marked by tales of bleached coral on the Great Barrier Reef and heat waves that destroyed cattle and crops and left others without water.
Looking ahead, we can anticipate global warming to continue and, as a result, temperature records to be broken more regularly unless we move quickly to decrease greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.
In other words, the situation in 2023 is looking pretty grim.
Reference- The Washington Post, Reuters, NOAA, CBS News, National Geographic, BBC