July 4 breaks record of previous day, emerges as world’s hottest day on record

New York, United States

For the second day in a row, the world temperature record was broken on Tuesday (July 4), as data suggested and experts further warned that the warmest days of this year are yet to come, which will eventually mark the warmest days ever recorded.

As per the data collected by US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), the average global air temperature on Tuesday was 17.18ºC (62.9F), surpassing the record temperature of 17.01ºC which was reached on Monday.

Till the start of this week, the hottest day ever recorded was in 2016 when the last El Nino global weather event had occurred and the global average temperature had reached 16.92ºC. 

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The UN’s weather body World Meteorological Organisation on Tuesday confirmed the return of El Nino. According to the predictions of experts, combined with the increased heat due to anthropogenic global heating, the climatic conditions would lead to more record-breaking temperatures.

“El Niño hasn’t peaked yet and summer is still in full swing in the northern hemisphere, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the record is broken again in the coming days or weeks,” stated Dr Paulo Ceppi, who is a lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London.

Dr Karsten Haustein, a research fellow in atmospheric radiation at Leipzig University, said, “The coming days will probably see a small downturn, but since the annual global temperature maximum is at the end of July, more days are likely to be warmer than yesterday (given that El Niño is now pretty much in full swing). Chances are that the month of July will be the warmest ever, and with it the hottest month ever … ‘ever’ meaning since the Eemian, which is indeed some 120,000 years ago.”

The Climate Reanalyzer service, which was hosted by the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute, reported the record-breaking mean temperature. It used the data from the climate forecast system of NCEP to give a time series of daily mean two-metre air temperature, on the basis of readings from air balloon, surface and satellite observations. 

World faces extreme heatwave

Extreme heatwave is being faced by various regions of the world. On Monday, the Met Office said that the United Kingdom battled its hottest-ever June. In recent weeks, the southern US has been sweltering due to intense heat, as temperatures shot up on Tuesday (July 4). 

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“The temperatures creating these record-breaking days match exactly expectations under human-caused climate change,” stated Ilan Kelman, a professor of disasters and health at University College London’s Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction.

“As the rising temperatures drive worsening heatwaves, including terrible humidity, we expect to see substantial increases in related deaths. Many people cannot afford indoor cooling and some people must be outside for work. The combination of heat and humidity then becomes the silent killer, since we often do not realise how many people are in lethal difficulty, especially when it does not cool down at night," he added.