The global average temperature has reached an unofficial record for the third day in a row, measuring 17.18 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.
Key points:
- Unofficial records were also set on Monday and Tuesday
- Scientists say despite the unofficial nature of the records, it is an indication of a hotter future
- US government says it will take them into consideration for official calculations
The University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world’s condition, recorded the temperature.
It matched a record set on Tuesday of 17.18C and came after a previous record of 17.01C was set on Monday.
Climate scientist Sean Birkle, creator of the Climate Reanalyzer, said the daily figures are unofficial but a useful snapshot of what’s happening in a warming world.
US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Sarah Kapnick agreed, saying while the figures are not an official government record, “this is showing us an indication of where we are right now.”
The agency also indicated it will take the figures into consideration for its official record calculations.
Even though the dataset used for the unofficial record goes back only to 1979, Dr Kapnick said that given other data, the world is likely seeing the hottest day in “several hundred years that we’ve experienced.”
Scientists generally use much longer measurements — months, years, decades — to track the Earth’s warming. But the daily highs are an indication that climate change is reaching uncharted territory.
The latest marker in a series of climate-change-driven extremes
Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field, who was not part of the calculations, said it is “another piece of evidence for the now massively supported proposition that global warming is pushing us into a hotter future.”
Scientists have warned for months that 2023 could see record heat as human-caused climate change, driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil, warmed the atmosphere.
They also noted that La Nina, the natural cooling of the ocean that had acted as a counter to that warming, was giving way to El Nino, the reverse phenomenon marked by warming oceans.
With many places seeing temperatures near 37.8C, the average temperature records might not seem very hot.
But Tuesday’s global high was nearly one full degree higher than the 1979-2000 average, which already tops the 20th- and 19th-century averages.
High-temperature records were surpassed this week in Quebec and Peru. Beijing reported nine straight days last week when the temperature exceeded 35C.
Cities across the US have been hovering at all-time highs, said Zack Taylor, a meteorologist with the US National Weather Service with several areas under extreme heat advisories.