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Earth experienced its hottest day on RECORD last Sunday: Global average temperature hit 17.09°C on July 21 - and scientists say climate change is to blame
Earth just experienced its hottest day in recorded history, scientists at the EU's climate change programme have revealed.
On Sunday (July 21), the world's average temperature hit 62.76°F (17.09°C) – just exceeding the previous record of 62.74°F (17.08°C) from July 6, 2023.
This makes it the hottest day going back to at least 1940, when records started.
The scientists stress that this new average takes the whole planet into account – not just the UK or indeed any one specific area.
Worryingly, they say human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are to blame for the heat, with the new record described as a 'fingerprint of climate change'.
The Earth has just experienced its warmest day in recent history, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) data
According to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the 10 years with the highest daily average temperatures are the last 10 years – from 2015 to 2024.
'What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records,' said Carlo Buontempo, C3S director.
'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.'
The climate service recently revealed that June 2024 was the 13th consecutive record-breaking month.
In other words, every month since June 2023 has been the hottest ever recorded for that particular month – signifying an ongoing warming trend.
'It's certainly a worrying sign coming on the heels of 13 straight record-setting months,' said Dr Zeke Hausfather, climate scientist at Berkeley Earth.
Dr Hausfather now estimates there's a 92 per cent chance that 2024 will beat 2023 as the warmest year on record.
This map shows where Earth suffered extremes in terms of heat on July 21 - Earth's hottest day - compared to the 1991-2020 reference period
A tourist drinks water to cool off while visiting the Acropolis as a prolonged heatwave hits Athens, July 21, 2024
C3S, managed by the European Commission, looks at temperature readings based on a variety of platforms and instruments, from weather stations to weather balloons and satellites.
The department's readings refer to the average air temperature for the whole planet over the whole year – so lower than a single typically 'hot' temperature reading.
Sunday and last year's previous record both smash an old record of 62.24°F (16.8°C), which was set on August 13, 2016.
Other years with record-breaking hot days are 2022, 2019, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2015, 1998, 2011 and 2009.
The fact that these hottest days of the year are higher than earlier years in the record – for example in the 1970s and 1980s – are a worrying symptom of human-caused climate change, according to the scientists.
The fact that the 'hottest day of the year' has got so much higher since the turn of the century is a worrying symptom of human-caused climate change, the scientists say.
This graph shows hottest days of the year for each year since 1974. Note how the last 10 years have pushed much higher, compared with before the turn of the century
People in Wimbledon Common, London, on the hottest day globally recorded so far - July 21, 2024
Pictured, firefighters try to extinguish a fire inside the yard of a house at the suburb of Trilofos near the city of Thessaloniki, Greece July 18, 2024
While 2024 has been extremely warm, what kicked Sunday into new territory was a warmer than usual Antarctic winter, according to CS3.
The same thing was happening on the southern continent last year when the record was set in early July.
But other factors include especially high temperatures in interior California, which baked with triple digit Fahrenheit heat, complicating more than two dozen fires in the US West.
At the same time, Europe sweltered through its own deadly heat wave, with forest fires in Greece and Croatia.
Experts point the finger at the fossil fuel industry, which emit greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methane by burning fossil fuels like coal, gas and oil.
'The warming will continue as long as we´re dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and we have the technology to largely stop doing that today,' said Texas A&M University climate scientist Andrew Dessler.
Professor Michael Mann, climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, said the difference between the this year's and last year's high mark is so tiny and so preliminary that he is surprised the European climate agency is promoting it.
'We should really never be comparing absolute temperatures for individual days,' Professor Mann.
A firefighter hoses down the garage of a home that was destroyed by the Hawarden Fire in Riverside, California, on Sunday, July 21, 2024
Tourists arrive on top of a bus at the Acropolis as a prolonged heatwave hits peak in Athens, July 21, 2024
However, Professor Victor Gensini, Northern Illinois University climate scientist, said 'what really kind of makes your eyeballs jump out' is how the last few years have been so much hotter than previous marks.
There have been more than 30,500 days since Copernicus data started in 1940, and Sunday is the hottest of all of them, Professor Gensini pointed out.
'It's certainly a fingerprint of climate change,' he said.
Looking solely the UK, Friday was the hottest day of the year so far, according to the Met Office, while 2023 was the second-warmest year since records began in 1884.
The past week has offered a welcome break for Brits after a wet start to the month saw the country already hit by 97 per cent of the month’s average rainfall.