Sunday was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth, scientists say
CTV
Sunday was the hottest day ever recorded, breaking global temperatures dating back to 1940, according to preliminary data from Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Sunday was the hottest day ever recorded, breaking global temperatures dating back to 1940, according to preliminary data from Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The average global temperature climbed to 17.09 Celsius, narrowly edging the previous record set in July 2023. Climatologists say the extreme difference between the consecutive records of the last 13 months and the previous decades are staggering.
"We are now in uncharted territory," Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus said in a statement. "As the climate keeps warming, we are bound to see new records being broken in future months and years."
June marked the first time the world spent an entire year where the average monthly temperature exceeded 1.5 C above pre-industrial norms. An average increase of 1.5 C is the limit set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement, which most climatologists consider the highest amount of climate change allowable without causing irreversible effects.
The current quantity of human-induced warming is estimated to be around 1.2 C above pre-industrial norms, but a recent study by the World Meteorological Organization found the world's temperature will likely temporarily exceed the 1.5 C threshold in the next five years.
Sunday’s record was just 0.01 C above the previous benchmark of 17.08 C, part of a string of new daily highs set in July and August of last year, but nearly a third of a degree higher than the previous record set in 2016.
Copernicus scientists say the beginning of this week could be even warmer before cooling, but add it is too early to say if 2024 will become the hottest year on record. As many as 400 daily temperature records have been broken in Western Canada and the territories during the month of July, according to Environment Canada.
