July 22 2024 — The Hottest Recorded Day On Earth

July 22 2024 was the hottest day on record. The hottest day that we have ever measured, and the warmest average global climate of the Holocene — the modern human-dominated epoch of the Earth over the last 10,000 years since the End of the Last Ice Age — and possibly even of the last 120,000 years.

Further evidence of Anthropogenic (Human-Driven) Climate Change — made even more concerning by the fact that climate studies of the last ice age indicate that there is a lag of maybe a few centuries between the introduction of CO₂ into the atmosphere and its effects on climate.

Global temperature has steadily increased decade-by-decade since we began consistently measuring globally (the Copernicus satellite keeping heat records since 1940, while the US and UK governments have records going back to 1880). [1] Over the last 13 straight months the Earth has set heat records, with rising on average around the world over the last century reaching a climax on 22 July 2024.

Details

22 July reached a surface air temperature (averaged over the globe) reading of 17.15 °C (62.87 °F), beating the record set the day before (21 July 2024). [1]

“Provisional satellite data published by Copernicus on Wednesday shows that Monday was 0.06 degrees Celsius (0.1 degree Fahrenheit) hotter than Sunday, which was .01 degrees Celsius hotter (0.2 degrees Fahrenheit) than the previous hottest day on record, July 6, 2023.” [1]

This temperature record was influenced by oceans that continue to warm (including Antarctica being warmer than usual for the season). The Western United States and Canada, as well as eastern Siberia were also especially warm. Antarctica being 6-10°C warmer than usual is probably what resulted in the global heat record to be broken this year (the same thing happened last time the record was set in early July 2023).

According to Carlo Buontempo (Director of the European climate service) this could be the beginning of an increase in the rate of climate change. [1]

Oceans have also been breaking heat records for the last 15 months. [1]

Consequences

All of the factors that are coming together to increase the temperature of the world (like pollution and deforestation leading towards warmer oceans, increased wildfires, increasingly intense weather patterns, and so on) influence one another in a feedback loop creating compounding results.

As these changes progress, the various factors amplify one another, increasing the rate of and intensity of climate change as time goes on. Given a lag in the effects of changing the atmosphere over centuries, it is concerning that changes now appear to be the result of damage done to the environment decades earlier.

While many people point to the record of climate change over the history of the Earth as evidence that warming and cooling is natural, this is true, but also beside the point. The difference is that this time humanity is heavily influencing climate artificially, i.e. against natural climate cycles.

This is also a fact, that must be considered in concert with existing natural oscillations of climate (and the many factors that influence those like Milankovitch Cycles).

In the end, the solution remains the same:

We have to collectively work to decrease C02 emissions, pollution, and all major contributing factors that effect climate change now.

Resources

• “Monday breaks the record for the hottest day ever on Earth”. Sibi Arasu and Seth Borenstein. AP News. <https://apnews.com/article/hottest-day-ever-climate-change-weather-heat-extreme-global-warming-8e2b0b7fa0360ecb931ca333a832c694>. Accessed 13 Aug 2024.