Monday was the hottest day ever recorded globally, surpassing the average threshold of 17°C for the first time, according to the first measurements taken on Tuesday by the US Meteorological Agency, quoted by AFP.

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The organization under the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) measured the average daily surface air temperature on July 3 at 17.01°C.

This measurement surpasses the previous daily record (16.92°C) set on July 24, 2022, according to data provided by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction, which dates back to 1979.

Air temperature, which averages between 12 °C and 17 °C daily throughout the year, averaged 16.20 °C in early July between 1979 and 2000.

This record, which has yet to be confirmed by other measurements, could be broken quickly as summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere and global average temperatures generally continue to rise through late July and early August.

El Nino

Since the start of June, global average temperatures have been the highest for the period ever recorded by Europe’s Copernicus service, beating previous records by a “significant margin”.

These observations are a likely prediction of the El Niño phenomenon, which is usually associated with an increase in global temperatures, combined with the effects of human-induced global warming.

On June 8, NOAA officially announced the arrival of El Niño, saying it “could lead to new temperature records” in some regions.

World records

Several records were broken in Asia in June, with the UK having its hottest June on record and Mexico being hit by extreme heat.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO, a specialized UN agency), there is a 66% chance that the global annual mean surface temperature will temporarily exceed pre-industrial levels by more than 1.5 °C for at least one year between 2023 and 2027.

2022 was the eighth year in a row that the annual global temperature was at least 1 degree above the level observed between 1850 and 1900.

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