According to preliminary data from a European Union monitoring agency, Monday, 22 July was once again the hottest day on record, edging out Sunday, 21 July, which had previously held the title.
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The global average surface air temperature rose to 17.15°C, 0.06 degrees higher than Sunday’s marginal record, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which has been monitoring such patterns since 1940.
The record was last set for four days in a row in early July 2023. Before that, the hottest day occurred in August 2016.
‘This past Monday might have set a new global record for warmest absolute global average temperature ever — by that I mean going back tens of thousands of years,’ said climate scientist Karsten Haustein at Leipzig University in Germany.
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Cities in Japan, Indonesia and China have recently experienced record high temperatures. Gulf countries have also experienced heat indexes that exceed 60°C, when humidity is taken into account. Meanwhile, temperatures in parts of Europe have risen above 45°C.
Scientists said that climate change, caused by the use of fossil fuels, is behind the record. Unlike last year, where climate change and El Niño combined to set a new daily record, this July does not follow suit.
Haustein said it was ‘remarkable’ that the record has been breached now that the world is well into neutral territory and no longer feeling the impact of El Niño.
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