The record for the hottest day on Earth was broken three times last week in an extraordinary seven-day period for weather.
On Thursday July 6, the average temperature for the planet was recorded at 17.23C. The 2016 record of 16.92C occurred when the El Niño phenomenon led to worldwide weather quirks. But this was beaten, first on Monday, when 17.01C was reached, and then on Tuesday, when 17.18C was recorded, and again on Thursday.
The mean temperatures were recorded by the Climate Reanalyzer service at the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute.
Dr Paulo Ceppi, a lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, told the Guardian that even warmer temperatures could be on the way.
“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.”
Highest temperature recorded in the UK
On July 19 last year, Coningsby in Lincolnshire reached 40.3C – a UK record. This replaced the previous record of 38.7C measured in Cambridge in 2019.
Highest temperature ever recorded, anywhere
A mind-melting 56.7C was clocked in Death Valley in the US on July 13, 1913.
A 100 years later that figure claimed the title back after a 57.8C 1922 reading from Libya was found to be erroneous and scrubbed from the record book.
Hottest year on record
The Met Office has said that 2022 was probably the hottest year in the UK, with an average reading of over 10C for the first time. The mean temperature of 10.03C was the highest since records began in 1884.
But it was not the hottest year on record worldwide, with it actually coming fifth.
However, the eight warmest years on record have now all been set since 2014 – with the El Niño effect meaning 2016 is still the leader. There are fears, therefore, that 2023 could be a warmer overall year and the warmest in history.
Met Office climate attribution scientist Dr Nikos Christidis said: “To assess the impact of human induced climate change on the record-breaking year of 2022, we used climate models to compare the likelihood of a UK mean temperature of 10C in both the current climate and with historical human climate influences removed.
“The results showed that recording 10C in a natural climate would occur around once every 500 years, whereas in our current climate it could be as frequent as once every three to four years.”
Hottest day on record
The record has been set as 17.23C. Note this is a worldwide mean and not the highest temperature in any one place.
