The U.S. National Centres for Environmental Prediction reported that Monday, July 3, was the hottest day ever recorded across the globe, as the average global temperature reached 17.01 degrees Celsius, when the highest average recorded was August 2016’s 16.92 C.
The south of the U.S. has been suffering from intense heat in recent weeks, and in China, temperatures crossed 35 C, while North Africa witnessed temperatures of almost 50 C. In the South Pole, Antarctica, which is currently in its winter, recorded an anomalously high temperature as well.
Climate scientist Friederike Otto, from the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Britain’s Imperial College London, said that the new records are not a milestone to be celebrated. “It’s a death sentence for people and ecosystems,” Otto added.
Scientists agreed that climate change and the emerging El Nino pattern were the reasons behind the high temperatures recorded.
“Unfortunately, it promises to only be the first in a series of new records set this year as increasing emissions and greenhouse gases coupled with a growing El Nino event push temperatures to new highs,” said Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at Berkeley Earth, in a statement.
