(LOOTPRESS) – According to preliminary data released by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) on July 23rd, Sunday, July 21st was the hottest day globally since at least 1940, exceeding the previous record by a mere 0.01°C.
While this margin is almost indistinguishable, the stark contrast between the temperatures observed since July 2023 and all previous years is truly remarkable. This data can be further explored through the C3S application, Climate Pulse, which provides historical and near real-time temperature data from the ERA5 reanalysis dataset.
Prior to July 2023, the previous daily global average temperature record stood at 16.8°C, set on August 13, 2016. However, since July 3, 2023, there have been 57 days that have surpassed this previous record, distributed across July, August 2023, and June-July 2024.
As stated by C3S Director Carlo Buontempo, “On July 21st, C3S recorded a new record for the daily global mean temperature. What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records. We are now in truly uncharted territory, and as the climate keeps warming, we are bound to see new records being broken in future months and years.”
Analysis of the years with the highest annual maximum daily global temperatures reveals that both 2023 and 2024 have seen annual highs substantially above those recorded in previous years. Furthermore, the ten years with the highest daily average temperatures are the last ten years, from 2015 to 2024, underscoring the global warming trend.
The difference in the highest daily average temperature between the lowest ranked of those ten years (2015) and the previous record before 2023 (August 13, 2016) was 0.2°C. The jump from the 2016 record to 2023/2024 is about 0.3°C, highlighting the remarkable warmth observed in the past two years.
The previous highest daily global average temperature was 17.08°C, a record set on July 6, 2023, as part of a prolonged streak of record-breaking daily global average temperatures in July and August 2023. Prior to this long streak, the highest daily global average temperature in the ERA5 dataset was 16.80°C, recorded on August 13, 2016.
