By Anders Lorenzen

Data from the US National Centre for Environmental Protection has concluded, that Monday the 3rd of July 2023 was the hottest day ever recorded globally. 

Measuring 17.01 degrees C, the average global temperature set a new record surpassing the previous record set in August 2016 of 16.92 C. Heatwaves gripping many parts of the world was a key contribution to this new unwelcome record, showing how climate change is strengthening its grip on the world.

Extreme heat

The southern part of the US has been suffering from an intense heat dome in recent weeks. In China, a relentless heatwave is continuing with temperatures surpassing 35 C, while parts of North Africa have seen temperatures at around 50 C.

Even in Antarctica, the coolest place in the southern hemisphere, which is in winter right now they have registered unusually high temperatures. The continent’s Argentine Island recently broke its July temperature record at 8.7 C.

Concerned about these records, climate scientist Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Britain’s Imperial College, London said: “This is not a milestone we should be celebrating.  It’s a death sentence for people and ecosystems.”

Climate scientists explain that climate change in conjunction with the weather pattern of El Nino is to blame. They report that this is just one of the unwelcome records to be broken this year, as we continue to emit an increasing amount of CO2 through the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities. And it is very likely we will see new temperature highs before we ring in 2024.