Sunset at San Francisco International Airport
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We just experienced the hottest day on record on Earth, with the global average temperature surpassing 17°C (62.6°F) for the first time.
The average global air temperature measured 2 meters above the Earth’s surface reached 17.01 °C (62.62 °F) on July 3. according to data of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US and compiled by the University of Maine.
It beats the record 16.92°C (62.46°F) set in August 2016 and July 2022, making July 3, 2023 the hottest day on Earth since records began.
Robert Rothe at the University of California, Berkeley, says the temperature spike was likely caused by recent heat waves in the U.S., Europe and Canada, and accelerating El Niño conditions, which are raising sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean above average.
“The El Niño event was officially declared by NOAA in early June,” he says. “Pacific warming is expanding and that will likely contribute to that [temperatures] slightly higher in July than in previous months.”
![Default new scientist image](https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/04164035/SEI_162809004.jpg?width=1200)
Source: https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/t2_daily/
This particular dataset from NOAA/Maine only goes back to 1979, but is comparable to other data going back much further. Rohde says he’s confident it’s the highest since instrumental measurements began. It’s an “expected milestone,” he says, considering the twins drivers of climate change and additional warming caused by El Niño.
“We will continue to exceed these thresholds every few years if we have El Niño variability on top of global warming until we get global warming under control,” says Rohde.
The news comes on the heels of a record warm June. Earlier this week, the Met Office, the United Kingdom’s national weather service, declared June 2023 to be the warmest on record for the country, with an average average temperature of 15.8°C (60.44°F) for the month, which is 2.5 °C. (4.5°F) above the average and 0.9°C (1.6°F) above the previous record.
The Met Office said the likelihood of a new June record has doubled due to climate change. “In addition to natural variability, the background warming of Earth’s atmosphere due to human-induced climate change has increased the possibility of reaching record high temperatures,” the agency’s chief meteorologist, Paul Davies, said in a press release.
Meanwhile, data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed this week that the global average temperature in June 2023 was 1.46°C above pre-industrial levels, moving closer to the 1.5°C threshold set for countries have vowed not to exceed.
BREAKING: June 2023 has blown away all previous records for the month of June, coming in at a whopping 0.16C above the previous record set in 2019.
It was about 1.46C above the typical temperatures seen in June in the pre-industrial era (1850-1899). pic.twitter.com/7D5yR11n0z
— Zeke Hausvader (@hausfath) July 3, 2023
Global mean air temperatures follow the Northern Hemisphere’s seasonal cycles, peaking in July. That’s because air temperatures fluctuate more over land than over water, and since the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass than the Southern Hemisphere, it has a greater influence on the global average.
As El Niño continues to increase for the rest of the year and it is high summer in the Northern Hemisphere, Rohde thinks it is likely that July and August will also see high – even record – average global temperatures. This year is “more likely than not” to be the hottest year on record, he says.
Subjects:
- climate change/
- global temperature