July 22 recorded as world's hottest day in 84 years, says European climate agency

The Earth's global average temperature was at a record high of 17.15 degrees Celsius on July 22, making it the world's hottest day in at least 84 years, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

The new daily global average temperature broke the record set on July 21 where the temperature reached 17.09 degree Celsius.

The preliminary data by the agency showed that the global average temperature on July 21 was 17.09 degrees Celsius, which was .01 degrees Celsius more than the record set just last year on July 6, 2023. In 2016, the average global temperature was recorded at 16.8 degrees Celsius.

Based on preliminary data released by C3S on July 24, Monday (July 22) was the hottest day in the ERA5 dataset, which began in 1940, the agency said.

“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. The event is still ongoing and the date of the peak may still change, but our data suggest we may see slightly lower temperatures in the next few days," following the new record, C3S Director Carlo Buontempo said.

Since July 3, 2023, there have been 58 days that have exceeded that previous record, distributed between July and August 2023, and during June and July so far in 2024, it said.

June marked the 12th consecutive month of global temperatures reaching or exceeding the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold. Every month since June last year has been the warmest on record.

The global average temperature usually reaches its annual peak between late June and early August, which coincides with the northern hemisphere summer.

The large land masses of the northern hemisphere warm up faster than the oceans of the southern hemisphere can cool down during these months.

The seasonal patterns of the northern hemisphere drive the overall global temperatures. According to the analysis by C3S, the sudden rise in daily global average temperature is related to much above-average temperatures over large parts of Antarctica.

These anomalies are not unusual during the Antarctic winter months and also contributed to the record global temperatures in early July 2023.

Antarctic sea ice extent is nearly as low as it was at this time last year, leading to much above-average temperatures over parts of the Southern Ocean.

The year 2024 can possibly be warmer than 2023, but the exceptional warmth of the last four months of 2023 makes it too early to predict with confidence which year will be the warmer, the agency added.