Sunday, July 21, was the hottest day on record, according to data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, which has been monitoring global weather patterns since 1940.
The global average surface air temperature on Sunday reached 17.09 degrees Celsius (62.76 degrees Fahrenheit) – just above the previous record set last July of 17.08 C (62.74 F).
Every month since June 2023 has been ranked as the hottest on the planet since records began, compared to the corresponding month in previous years.
Some scientists suggest that 2024 could overtake 2023 as the hottest year since records began, as climate change and the El Niño weather phenomenon – which ended in April – have increased temperatures further this year.
Uninhabitable places
A NASA’s article highlighted that some regions of the planet — including Brazil — could become uninhabitable by 2070 due to rising temperatures.
In the article “Too Hot to Handle: How Climate Change May Make Some Places Too Hot to Live”, NASA maps the regions of the planet where climate change will have the greatest impact over the next 50 years, highlighting how it “could make some places too hot to handle”, that is, they can reach a ‘wet bulb temperature’ of 35ºC. WetBulb temperature is used as a standard to measure heat and humidity. According to the study, this is the highest WetBulb temperature humans can survive when exposed for at least six hours.
Sources: Reuters and UOL