Tuesday was Earth’s hottest day on record, based on a preliminary and unofficial data source, scientists said Wednesday. It broke a mark set the day before.
It comes as scientists say the planet is the hottest it has been in roughly 125,000 years. Experts expect more heat records to fall this summer.
On Tuesday, Earth’s average temperature rose to 62.9 degrees, according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, a tool based on satellite data and computer simulations. That’s the highest temperature for that dataset since records began in 1979.
The unusual warmth is the result of a combination of human-caused climate change, the strengthening El Niño and the start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
Warmest in 125,000 years?
Based on “proxy” climate data such as ice cores, tree rings and sediments, “it hasn’t been this warm since at least 125,000 years ago, which was the previous interglacial,” Paulo Ceppi, a climate scientist at London’s Grantham Institute, told The Washington Post, referring to a period of unusual warmth between two ice ages.
The warming trend can be linked to the burning of oil, gas and coal that releases “greenhouse” gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, into the atmosphere. These gases have caused Earth’s temperature to rise over the past century to levels that cannot be explained by natural variability.
Record could be broken again
The daily heat record probably will be broken again, perhaps as early as Wednesday. “We may well see a few even warmer days over the next six weeks,” Berkeley Earth’s Robert Rohde wrote on Tuesday on Twitter.
Rohde said that although the dataset begins only in 1979, “other data sets let us look further back and conclude that this day was warmer than any point since instrumental measurements began, and probably for a long time before that as well. Global warming is leading us into an unfamiliar world.”
The global record is not quite the type regularly used by gold-standard climate measurement entities like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. But it is an indication that climate change is reaching into uncharted territory.
Climate change a primary factor
Indeed, climate change remains a primary factor in the globe’s warming: “The increasing heating of our planet caused by fossil fuel use is not unexpected − it was predicted already in the 19th century after all,” said climate scientist Stefan Rahmstorf at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research in Germany. “But it is dangerous for us humans and for the ecosystems we depend on. We need to stop it fast.”
Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field, who was not part of the calculations, noted that “a record like this is another piece of evidence for the now massively supported proposition that global warming is pushing us into a hotter future.”
Hot water:The oceans are unusually hot and on track to get hotter. That’s not good.
El Niño also plays a role
The natural El Niño climate pattern also plays a major role in the warmth: “The onset of El Niño will greatly increase the likelihood of breaking temperature records and triggering more extreme heat in many parts of the world and in the ocean,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement.
El Niño occurs on average every two to seven years, and episodes typically last nine to 12 months. It is a naturally occurring climate pattern associated with warming of the ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. But it takes place in the context of a climate changed by human activities, the World Meteorological Organization said.
Records smashed in June
The daily heat records set this week follow what was a record-smashing June for Earth’s weather and climate:
- Based on preliminary data, last month was the planet’s warmest June since at least 1940.
- The United Kingdom sweltered to its warmest June on record, the U.K. Met Office said. Records there go back to the 1880s.
- Antarctic sea ice shrank to its lowest June extent on record. Measurements of sea ice began in 1979.
- Roughly 40% of the world’s oceans are experiencing marine heat waves, the most since satellite tracking started in 1991, according to NOAA.
Brutal heat waves ongoing
Brutal heat waves have killed dozens of people around the world this year, including at least 13 in the U.S. And the planet is just a few days into what’s typically the hottest month of the year.
Contributing: The Associated Press
