The Earth experienced the hottest temperature ever recorded over the past week with average global temperature reaching 17.01 degrees Celsius (62.62 Fahrenheit) and the hottest day ever recorded on Monday, according to the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP).
“[NCEP] has placed Earth’s average temperature yesterday as the hottest single day thus far measured by humans. This is driven by the combination of El Nino on top of global warming, and we may well see a few even warmer days over the next 6 weeks,” Robert Rohde, lead scientist at Berkeley Earth, said via Twitter on Tuesday.
Though the NCEP climate forecast system analysis began in 1979, other data sets have allowed scientists to look further back and conclude that this day was warmer than any point since instrumental measurements began and probably for a long time before that as well, Rohde said.
On Wednesday, a new study by the Nature Communications Journal warned of the likely increase of deadly record-breaking heat waves. Researchers said they have identified Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan and Central America as the places most likely to become “hot spots” for the heat waves.