The world’s hottest day has just been recorded; Check details

“It’s a death sentence for people and ecosystems.” climate scientist Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London.

New Delhi: The day between July 4 and Monday, July 3 was the warmest on record on Earth, according to data from the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction, a new agency, Reuters, reported. The average global temperature rose to 17.01 degrees Celsius (62.62 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking the previous record of 16.92 degrees Celsius (62.46 degrees Fahrenheit) set in August 2016. This happened when heat waves set the world on fire.

Suffering in the Southern US

The south of the US has been suffering from an intense heat dome in recent weeks. In China, a persistent heat wave continued, with temperatures above 35 °C (95 °F). North Africa has seen temperatures approaching 50 °C (122 °F), the report said.

And even Antarctica, which is currently in winter, recorded abnormally high temperatures. Ukraine’s Vernadsky Research Base in the Argentine Islands of the White Continent recently broke July’s temperature record of 8.7 C (47.6 F), the agency’s new report said.

Not a milestone worth celebrating

“This is not a milestone we should be celebrating,” said climate scientist Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London.

“It’s a death sentence for people and ecosystems.”

Scientists said climate change, combined with an emerging El Nino pattern, was to blame.

Unfortunately, it promises to be only the first in a series of new records set this year as emissions of [carbon dioxide] and greenhouse gases combined with a growing El Nino event are pushing temperatures to new highs,” Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at Berkeley Earth, said in a statement, the new agency said.

(With input from Reuters)