BENGALURU, India 鈥� Global temperatures dropped a minuscule amount after two days of record highs, making Tuesday only the world鈥檚 second-hottest day ever.
The European climate service Copernicus that Tuesday鈥檚 global average temperature was 0.01 Celsius (0.01 Fahrenheit) lower than Monday鈥檚 all-time high of 17.16 degrees Celsius (62.8 degrees Fahrenheit), (0.1 degrees Fahrenheit) than Sunday.
All three days were hotter than .
鈥淭he steady drumbeat of hottest-day-ever records and near-records is concerning for three main reasons. The first is that heat is a killer. The second is that the health impacts of heat waves become much more serious when events persist. The third is that the hottest-day records this year are a surprise,鈥� said Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field.
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Field said high temperatures usually occur during El Nino years 鈥� a natural warming of the equatorial Pacific that triggers weather extremes across the globe 鈥� but ended in April.
Field said these high temperatures 鈥渦nderscores the seriousness of the climate crisis.鈥�
鈥淭his has been, I mean, probably the shortest-lived record ever,鈥� Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo said Wednesday, after his agency calculated that Monday had beaten Sunday鈥檚 mark. And he predicted that mark would also quickly fall. 鈥淲e are in uncharted territory.鈥�
Before July 3, 2023, the hottest day measured by Copernicus was 16.8 degrees Celsius (62.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on August 13, 2016. In the last 13 months that mark has now been beaten 59 times, according to Copernicus.
Humanity is now 鈥渙perating in a world that is already much warmer than it was before,鈥� Buontempo said.
鈥淯nfortunately people are going to die and those deaths are preventable,鈥� said Kristie Ebi, a public health and climate professor at the University of Washington. 鈥淗eat is called the silent killer for a reason. People often don鈥檛 know they鈥檙e in trouble with heat until it鈥檚 too late.鈥�
In past heat waves, including in , heat deaths didn鈥檛 start piling up until day two, Ebi said.
鈥淎t some point, the accumulated heat internally becomes too much, then your cells and your organs start to warm up,鈥� Ebi said.
Last year, the United States had its most recorded heat deaths in more than 80 years, according to an of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. The death certificates of more than 2,300 people mentioned excessive heat. Heat killed 874 people in Arizona, 450 in Texas, 226 in Nevada, 84 in Florida and 83 in Louisiana.
Earlier this year, India witnessed prolonged heatwaves that resulted in the . However, health experts say heat deaths are likely in India and potentially other countries.
The 鈥渂ig driver鈥� of the current heat is greenhouse gas emissions, from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, Buontempo said. Those gases help trap heat, changing the energy balance between the heat coming in from the sun and that escaping Earth, meaning the planet retains more heat energy than before, he said.
Other factors include the warming of the Pacific by El Nino; the sun reaching its peak cycle of activity; an undersea volcano explosion; and air with fewer heat-reflecting particles because of marine fuel pollution regulations, experts said.
have all set heat records. The world鈥檚 oceans broke heat records for 15 months in a row and that water heat, along with an unusually warm Antarctica, are helping push temperatures to record level, Buontempo said.
鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 be surprised to see Thursday, Friday and Saturday also set new warmest day records,鈥� said climate scientist Andrew Weaver at the University of Victoria in Canada, which has been broiling in the warmth.
