New Delhi: The planet reached the hottest day on record for the second day in a row in July, according to preliminary data from Copernicus, Europe’s climate change service.
Based on data released by C3S, Monday 22 July was the hottest day in the ERA5 dataset, which begins in 1940. The temperature on 23 July was very similar, at 17.15°C
This exceeds the previous records of 17.09°C, set just one day before on 21 July 2024, and 17.08°C, set a year earlier on 6 July 2023.
Before July 2023, the previous daily global average temperature record was 16.8°C, on 13 August 2016.
Commenting on the record set on 21 July 2024, C3S Director Carlo Buontempo said “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.”
Earth’s warmest days on record
July 22, 2024: 17.15 degrees Celsius (62.87 degrees Fahrenheit)
July 21, 2024: 17.09 degrees Celsius (62.76 degrees Fahrenheit)
July 6, 2023: 17.08 degrees Celsius (62.74 degrees Fahrenheit)
Aug. 13, 2016: 16.80 degrees Celsius (62.24 degrees Fahrenheit)
Raising concern, United Nations, Secretary-General António Guterres issued an urgent call to action to better protect billions around the world exposed to crippling effects of extreme heat, as global temperature rise continues unabated.
“Billions of people are facing an extreme heat epidemic – wilting under increasingly deadly heatwaves, with temperatures topping 50 degrees Celsius around the world. That is 122 degrees Fahrenheit – halfway to boiling,” Secretary-General António Guterres said.
According to UN estimates, heat-related deaths for people over 65 years of age increased by about 85 per cent over the past two decades, while 25 per cent of all children today are exposed to frequent heatwaves and by 2050, that could rise to almost 100 per cent.
Over 70 per cent of the global workforce, or 2.4 billion people, are at substantial risk of extreme heat, according to new report from the UN International Labour Organization (ILO).
The situation is particularly dire in the Africa and Arab regions, where more than 90 per cent and 80 per cent of workers are exposed, respectively. In Asia and the Pacific the world’s most populous region that figure is three in four workers (75 per cent).
In addition, heat stress at work is projected to cost the global economy $2.4 trillion by 2030, up from $280 billion in the mid-1990s.
