EU climate monitor reports highest ever average global temperatures

Earth withered through a second straight day of record-breaking temperatures on 22 July, the EU’s climate monitor said Wednesday, as parts of the world suffer devastating heatwaves and wildfires.

Preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) showed the daily global average temperature was 17.15 degrees Celsius on Monday, the warmest day in recorded history.

This was 0.06 Celsius hotter than the day before on 21 July, which itself broke by a small margin the all-time average high temperature set only a year before.

“This is exactly what climate science told us would happen if the world continued burning coal, oil and gas,” said Joyce Kimutai, a climate scientist from Imperial College London, on Wednesday.

“And it will continue getting hotter until we stop burning fossil fuels and reach net zero emissions.”

Copernicus, which uses satellite data to update global air and sea temperatures close to real time, said its figures were provisional and final values may differ very slightly.

It anticipated daily records could keep toppling as summer peaks in the northern hemisphere, and the planet endures an extraordinary stretch of unprecedented heat on the back of the hottest-ever year.

The monitor on Tuesday said global temperatures were expected to drop soon though there could be further fluctuations.

Global warming is causing longer, stronger and more frequent extreme weather events, and this year has been marked by major disasters across the globe.

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