While cities around the world experienced record temperatures, the average temperature for the entire world in July was also the highest on record.
Global air temperatures reached a new high on July 3, surpassing the record set in 2016 and tied for 2022, according to several recent analyses, including from the University of Maine and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Since then, global air temperatures have continued to rise, making July 6 the hottest day Earth has experienced since at least 1979 and likely earlier, experts said.
Although global average temperatures dipped in the second week of July, they remained above the highest temperatures recorded earlier this year. The first two weeks of July are likely to be the hottest two weeks on record, according to an analysis by the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Last month was also the hottest June since at least 1850according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The extreme heat and record temperatures are driven by the continued release of heat-trapping gases, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels, and in part by the return of El Niño, a cyclical weather pattern that tends to be associated with warmer years around the world.
The Earth has warmed about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 19th century and will continue to get warmer until people stop burning oil, gas and coal, and halt deforestation, scientists say. Warmer temperatures help make periods of extreme heat more frequent and more intense and exacerbate other extreme weather events such as persistent droughts, wildfires and heavy rains and floods.
Because these numbers represent global averages, parts of the world felt the extraordinary warming more strongly.
A warmer-than-normal winter in parts of Antarctica has contributed to high temperatures around the world, say experts at the University of Maine. And many parts of the world have also warmed up in the summer heat.
In the United States, the heat has been particularly brutal in the South and Southwest. On Tuesday, the highest recorded temperature in the United States was 122 degrees Fahrenheit in Death Valley in California, according to the National Weather Service. Phoenix, for the first time since 1974, has hit 19 consecutive days in which the temperature reached 110 degrees or more.
Elsewhere, central and southern Italy and parts of Spain sweltered under temperatures that soared into the triple digits. At Persian Gulf International Airport on Iran’s southwest coast, the heat index, which measures how hot it feels by taking temperature and humidity into account, reached a life-threatening 152 degrees Fahrenheit over the weekend, according to weather data.
