Extreme heat

Monday was hottest recorded day on Earth: ‘Uncharted territory’

Data shows that the global surface air temperature reached 62.87F compared with 62.76F on Sunday.

Anna BettsWed 24 Jul 2024 17.57 CESTLast modified on Wed 24 Jul 2024 18.14 CEST

World temperature reached the hottest levels ever measured on Monday, beating the record that was set just one day before, data suggests.

Provisional data published on Wednesday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which holds data that stretches back to 1940, shows that the global surface air temperature reached 62.87F (17.15C), compared with62.76F (17.09C) on Sunday.

Earlier this month, Copernicus found that global temperatures between July 2023 and July 2024 were the highest on record.

The previous record before this week was set a year ago on 6 July.

“Our world is now malfunctioning sufficiently for us to begin to glimpse the darker, weirder malfunctioning—the sinister mal that might be intrinsic to functioning as such. Spectrality is the mal of this functioning, not just a superficial appearance, but exactly the sound of extinction faintly audible behind the din of the motorcars, its incredible weakness a horrible symptom of its colossal power.”

–Timothy Morton. Humankind