Sunday, July 21 was the hottest day ever measured, according to new data from the European Union’s Copernicus climate service.
The average global temperature on Sunday reached 62.76 degrees Fahrenheit. It edges out the record set last year on July 6 by .02 degrees, which itself far surpassed the earlier 62.24 degrees record that was set in 2016.
Copernicus has kept records since 1940. Other European and U.S. agencies have records that go back as far as 1880. And the climate signatures in tree rings and ancient ice cores also suggest that the high temperatures these last few years are a high point for the last 120,000 years.
“What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records,” Copernius Director Carlo Buontempo said in a statement. “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.”
Copernicus says the sudden jump in the average was largely due to unusually high temperatures in Antarctica. Earth’s polar regions are heating more quickly than other parts of the globe, which scientists think happens because of feedback loops: They’re losing snow and ice that reflects sunlight and has typically kept the regions colder, and more warmth melts more of that snow and ice.
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Record high temperatures are appearing much more frequently than record lows, which experts say is evidence that human-driven greenhouse emissions are destabilizing the climate and driving it generally warmer.
Temperature extremes also benefit from the warmth of the cyclical El Niño pattern, which is now diminishing and could keep highs from getting any higher this year. But officials at Copernicus say the heat we’ve already seen this year might still be enough to make 2024 set new records for the whole of the year.
