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Earth’s Hottest Day Ever Recorded Sends Shockwaves Across the Globe
Alarming news hit me like a heatwave punch, and I can’t help but feel a mix of anxiety and dismay.
I feel I need to write and share my concern, as the numbers I’m reading about are ominous: the average global temperature reached a new all-time high.
You see, early this week, Monday, July 3, became the hottest day ever recorded, according to data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
Apparently, the record didn’t stick around for too long if we believe the news hailing from the Washington Post stating temperatures went up again last Tuesday, July 4, reaching 17.18 degrees Celsius (62.9 degrees Fahrenheit), based on data from the University of Maine.
Before July 2023, the previous record for the Earth’s hottest day was in August 2016. The average global temperature on that day reached 16.92 degrees Celsius (62.46 Fahrenheit).
The 2016 heatwave was particularly felt in different parts of the United States, namely the South.
This event served as a wake-up call to the ongoing climate crisis. Scientists and experts emphasized the role of climate change in exacerbating extreme weather events.
Rising greenhouse gas emissions and human-induced global warming were identified as key drivers behind the increasing intensity and frequency of heatwaves.
Now it’s like some mysterious force has once again decided to turn up the heat, and boy, did it succeed.
Unfortunately, this isn’t some fleeting, once-in-a-lifetime event. It’s global warming, everyone, and it can get a lot worse.
So my mind drifts to the regions suffering under the relentless heatwaves.
Here in Portugal, we had temperatures reach 40 ºC (104 °F) over the weekend.
Last year, according to data from the Epidemiology Department of the National Institute of Health (INSA), three heat waves documented between July 4 and August 7, 2022, took the lives of at least 2401 people in Portugal.
