July 4th was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth.And scientists warn:«The record will not last long»

The data recorded by the Climate Reanalyzer project has yet to be validated by the American federal agency, but confirms what the scientific community has been saying for some time

Tuesday, July 4, 2023 was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth.The average surface temperature of our planet reached 17.18°C, surpassing the record set just one day earlier:17.01°C.The data was recorded by scientists from Climate Reanalyzer, a project developed by the Climate Change Institute of the University of Maine, in the United States, and which is based on observations conducted from 1979 to today.For the moment this is a preliminary data, which will have to be confirmed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the American federal agency that deals with the monitoring of climate phenomena.The two previous records dated back to August 14, 2016 and July 24, 2022, when the Earth reached a temperature of 16.92°C.

The return of «El Niño»

The surface temperature record reached yesterday could be very short-lived.In recent days, in fact, the World Meteorological Organization has certified the return of "El Niño", a climate phenomenon that occurs on average every five years and causes a strong warming of the waters of the Pacific Ocean.Its power is such that it causes an increase in extreme atmospheric phenomena in different parts of the world and, indeed, increases global temperatures.“El Niño hasn't peaked yet and summer is still in full swing in the Northern Hemisphere, so it wouldn't be a surprise if the record was broken again in the next few days or weeks,” he explained to the Guardian Paulo Ceppi, professor of climate science at the Grantham Institute in London.

Heat waves around the world

Although this is still a provisional figure, the estimates from the University of Maine only confirm what the scientific community has been saying for some time:the effects of the climate crisis and global warming are already before our eyes.At the beginning of the year, Copernicus - the European program for monitoring climate change - had estimated that the last eight years have been the warmest on record, with Europe confirming itself as the fastest warming continent.These days, several parts of the world are experiencing temperatures above the seasonal average.In some provinces of China the thermometer reached 35°C, while in North Africa it exceeded 50°C.Even Antarctica, where it is now winter, has recorded anomalous record temperatures, which in some cases have reached 8.7°C.

Photo credits:EPA/Arshad Arbab