According to initial measurements on Tuesday from an American meteorological organization, Monday, July 3, was the hottest day ever measured globally, exceeding the 17°C mark on average for the first time. The average daily air temperature on the surface of the planet on July 3 was measured at 17.01 ° C by an organization dependent on the United States Agency for Oceanic and Atmospheric Observations (NOAA).
This measurement exceeds the previous daily record (16.92°C) set on July 24, 2022, according to data from NOAA’s National Environmental Prediction Centers, which dates back to 1979. The air temperature, which fluctuates between approximately 12°C and 17°C daily average during the year, averaged 16.20°C at the beginning of July between 1979 and 2000.
This record, which has yet to be corroborated by other measurements, could be quickly broken as the Northern Hemisphere begins the summer season and the average global temperature generally continues to rise until late July-early August. Already in early June, global average temperatures were the hottest ever recorded for this period by Europe’s Copernicus service, beating previous records by a “substantial margin”.
These observations are a probable foretaste of the El Niño phenomenon, generally associated with an increase in global temperatures, coupled with the effects of global warming caused by human activity. On June 8, NOAA announced the official arrival of El Niño, saying it “could lead to new temperature records” in some regions.
In June, several records were broken in Asia and the UK had its hottest June on record while Mexico was hit by an extreme heat wave. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO, a specialized agency of the UN), there is a 66% chance that the annual mean global temperature near the surface will temporarily exceed pre-industrial levels by more than 1.5°C for at least least one year between 2023 and 2027. The year 2022 was the eighth year in a row that global annual temperatures were at least 1°C higher than levels observed between 1850 and 1900.
