Originally Published: 23 JUL 24 12:52 ET
Updated: 23 JUL 24 12:57 ET
By Angela Fritz, CNN
(CNN) — Sunday was the hottest day in recorded history, according to preliminary data from a climate tracking agency monitoring temperatures since the mid-1900s.
It’s the second consecutive year average global temperatures have crashed through shocking climate records and will not be the last, as planet-warming fossil fuel pollution drives temperatures to shocking new highs.
July 21 clocked in at 17.09 degrees Celsius, or 62.76 Fahrenheit, and was the hottest day on Earth since at least 1940, according to the preliminary data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Despite being based on data from the mid-20th century, the temperature records represent the warmest period the planet has seen in at least 100,000 years, scientists have found from many millennia of climate data extracted from ice cores and coral reefs.
This is a developing story and it will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
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Extreme heat
**This image is for use with this specific article only** July 21 was the hottest day in recorded history, according to European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, and people are seen shading themselves from the sun during extreme heat in Tokyo on July 22.
Issei Kato/Reuters via CNN Newsource
23 Jul 24
