Earth just had its hottest week ever. Here’s where records were smashed in Canada

The Earth just experienced its hottest week on record, on the heels of a record-setting month in June, and more heat waves and record-breaking days are expected before summer ends.

The world just had the hottest week on record and is now entering into “uncharted territory,” according to the World Meteorological Organization based on preliminary data.

The global mean temperature between July 3 and July 9 was 17.18 C, with temperatures above the previous record set in 2016, according to WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis.

Data from Japan, which has not yet been confirmed by the WMO, also shows that July 7 was the hottest day on record. The average global temperature was 17.24 C, which is 0.3 C hotter than the previous record of 16.94 C on Aug. 16, 2016.

The record temperatures are partly due to the onset of El Niño, according to the WMO, which is expected to fuel further heat on land and in the oceans and lead to more extreme heat waves; 2016 was another strong El Niño year.

“We are in uncharted territory and we can expect more records to fall as El Niño develops further and these impacts will extend into 2024,” professor Christopher Hewitt, WMO director of climate services, said in a statement.

Global temperature averages are determined by combining observations from satellites with computer model simulations, WMO says.

The record temperatures in July come after June reached about 0.5 C above the 1991-2020 average, according to a report from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. The high smashed the previous record for the month set in June 2019.

Canada is no exception to the above-normal temperatures seen recently, according to Global News chief meteorologist Anthony Farnell. He noted records have recently been broken in the Northwest Territories, with temperatures reaching 37.9 C — the farthest north such a temperature has ever been recorded. It beat the previous record by almost 3 C, Farnell said.