July 3, was measured as the world’s hottest single day ever, with global average daily temperatures near the earth’s surface topping 17 degrees Celsius for the first time since direct measurements began.
A 17 degree Celsius temperature may not appear to be particularly warm considering many places on earth routinely experience temperatures in high 40-plus degree Celsius, sometimes even crossing 50 degree Celsius, but this measurement was not over one place or region. Instead, this was the global average temperature, the average over both land and ocean, recorded two metres above the surface. The previous warmest day happened to be in August 2016 when global average temperature was measured to be 16.92 degree Celsius, scientists said.
Meanwhile, the World Meteorological Department on Tuesday announced the onset of El Nino phase in eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean and warned that this could lead to further increases in temperature this year.
‘The onset of El Nino will greatly increase the likelihood of breaking temperature records and triggering more extreme heat in many parts of the world and in the ocean,’ WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas said in a statement.
El Nino, an abnormal warming of sea surface waters in eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, off the northwestern coast of South America, is a largescale climate driver known to have an overall warming effect on the planet.
The WMO, in its annual State of Global Climate report, published in May, had said that it was almost certain that at least one of the next five years (2023 to 2027) would turn out to be the warmest year on record, leaving 2016, the current record holder, behind. It had further said that there was a 66 per cent chance that at least one of these years would also breach the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold, meaning that average global temperatures in that year would be at least 1.5 degree Celsius higher than pre- industrial times.