Ellen Phiddian
Cosmos science journalist
The world has broken a record for hottest day set just 24 hours beforehand.
According to the European Union’s climate monitoring program, the global average temperature was 17.16°C on 22 July. This beats the previous record of 17.09°C set on 21 July 2024, which had in turn beaten a record set in 2023.
On 23 July, the average temperature was slightly lower, at 17.15°C.
The data comes from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), which uses satellites to monitor global temperatures.
Prior to 2023, C3S had never observed global average temperatures above 17°C in its dataset, which goes back to 1940. The previous record was set on 13 August 2016, at 16.8°C.
The new records announced by C3S are preliminary and may change slightly in the coming months as the dataset goes through quality control.
“We now have a new record, and its value is sufficiently large to indicate with some confidence that this has exceeded the record set only last year,” said C3S Director Carlo Buontempo in a statement.
“The event is still ongoing and it is possible the date of the peak may still change, but our data suggest we may see slightly lower temperatures in the next few days.”
The record may be broken again in the next month. Global average temperatures usually peak in the northern hemisphere summer, because its higher landmass heats up faster than the oceans.
The record is beaten as wildfires are causing havoc across western Canada and the USA.
The town of Jasper, a popular tourist destination in the Canadian province of Alberta, has seen several homes and businesses destroyed.
Authorities say that while they have been able to protect critical infrastructure like the hospital and wastewater treatment centre, firefighters are still battling blazes in the town, and it is too early to assess the full extent of the damage.
The fires come at the culmination of a heatwave that has lasted more than 10 days in the region, with a change in the weather bringing igniting lightning strikes.
