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

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 with 62.76F (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. Before that, the previous recorded hottest day was in 2016, according to the Associated Press.

The director of Copernicus, Carlo Buontempo, told the Guardian earlier this week, that the world was now in “truly uncharted territory”, adding that he expects global temperature records to continue being broken in future months and years as the climate continues to warm.

Copernicus reported that what spurred the record temperatures this week was a warmer-than-usual Antarctic winter, according to the Associated Press.

Across the US, millions of residents have have experienced and are experiencing soaring temperatures and extreme heat this summer, which experts have linked to the climate change spurred by the burning of fossil fuels.

Earlier this month, heat advisories were in place in Kansas and Texas, as well as New York and South Carolina, among other states. Multiple cities also reached near record breaking daily temperatures, and heat-related deaths were reported in multiple states as the climate emergency makes extreme temperatures and longer heatwaves more likely.