Yesterday was the hottest day ever recorded as the global average temperature leaped to a record high for the second day in a row, according to preliminary readings by US meteorologists.
The average daily air temperature on the Earth's surface reached 17.18C, according to data compiled by an organisation attached to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
That far outstripped even the previous day's record measurement, a fresh sign of the impact of climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels.
The global average temperature reached 17C for the first time on Monday, according to data from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction, whose records go back to 1979.
That topped the previous daily record of 16.92C dating to 24 July 2022.
For comparison, the world's average air temperature, which fluctuates between 12C and just under 17C on any given day over the year, averaged 16.2 degrees at the beginning of July from 1979 to 2000.
This reported record has yet to be corroborated by other measurements, but could be broken again as the northern hemisphere's summer begins.
The EU climate monitoring unit Copernicus confirmed in a statement to AFP that Monday had been the hottest day in its dataset going back to 1940. It could not yet confirm the data for Tuesday.
The average global temperature typically continues to rise until the end of July or early August.
Even last month, average global temperatures were the warmest Copernicus had ever recorded for the start of June.
Temperatures are likely to rise even further above historical averages over the next year with the onset of an El Nino weather phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, which the World Meteorological Organization confirmed on Monday is now underway.
In addition, human activity, mainly the burning of fossil fuels, is continuing to emit roughly 40 billion tonnes of planet-warming CO2 into the atmosphere every year.
The Director of the Irish Climate Analysis and Research UnitS (ICARUS) at Maynooth University has said it was "no surprise that we are seeing global temperatures break all time records", adding that it will likely occur again this month.
Prof Peter Thorne described it as "exactly what we expect in a warming world".
"We will see more and more extremes and records broken both at local levels but also regionally and globally. With an El Nino in addition to the very warm North Atlantic there is no surprise that we are seeing global temperatures break all time records," Dr Thorne said.
The Coordinating Lead Author on a recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, Dr Thorne said "we will probably see potentially a few more days that are records, though maybe not consecutively, in the rest of July".
"Global mean temperatures have a seasonal cycle, it peaks in July, that's because there is so much land in the Northern hemisphere relative to the Southern hemisphere, so we're going to see several more days, potentially, of breaking that record again and again," he explained.
Prof Thorne said that while we won't yet see global temperatures "elevated this high above normal on a sustained basis" he warned that "this is a portent of what's to come in a decade or twos time unless we get our act together in reducing the emissions of these heat trapping gasses".
Additional reporting Laura Fletcher
