Monday was the hottest day on record following a record-breaking Sunday, according to preliminary data from the European Union’s monitoring agency.

The world’s average surface air temperature reached 17.15C (62.87F) on Monday, inching past the new record that had just been set on Sunday of 17.09C – a difference of 0.06C.

The preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service makes Monday the hottest day on record since 1940.

The record hot days come in a period when millions of people around the world sweltered in heatwaves in Japan, China, the United States and “hellishly hot” southern Europe, where temperatures soared to 44C (111.2F) in Spain.

Meanwhile, heat and humidity combined to an oppressive effect in the Gulf, and high temperatures fuelled forest fires blazing in Greece, Portugal and North America.

Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo said: “What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records.

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“We are now in truly uncharted territory and as the climate keeps warming, we are bound to see new records being broken in future months and years.”

Before July 2023, the world’s record temperature was 16.8C, set on 13 August 2016.

But since 3 July 2023, at least 57 days have smashed the previous August 2016 record, distributed between July and August 2023, and June and July 2024.

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What caused the new heat record, and why is the earth getting hotter?

Global average temperatures tend to peak during the Northern Hemisphere summer, between late June and early August.

That is because the seasonal patterns of the Northern Hemisphere tend to drive overall global temperatures.

But the new records are part of an “overall warming trend” driven by humans burning fossil fuels.

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However unlike last year, which saw climate change combine with the warming El Nino climate pattern to usher in a new daily record, that is not the case this year, as the El Nino has waned.

Karsten Haustein, climate scientist at Leipzig University in Germany, called it “remarkable” that the record had been
breached even though the world was no longer feeling the impact of El Nino.

Another sign of the broader trend is the fact the top 10 years with the highest daily average temperatures are the past 10 years, from 2015 to 2024.

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