Tuesday Was (Officially) The Hottest Day On Earth

If you thought that yesterday’s July 4th holiday was a scorcher… you’d be absolutely right.

Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows that Tuesday’s temperature reached a global average of 62.9℉, up from Monday’s average of 62.62℉ according to ABC11/CNN NewsWire.

That means that Tuesday was the hottest day on Earth since NOAA began their records over a century ago.

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The global record, although preliminary, is another indication of how fast the world is heating up, due to a combination of global warming and the El Niño phenomenon.

Locally, Raleigh saw temperatures rise up to 95℉, and with temperatures staying in the high 80s to lower 90s well into next week, it appears that we will not see the last of the warm weather.

The new global record is nothing to celebrate, however.

Instead, Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment in the UK, calls it “a wake up call.”

“It just shows we have to stop burning fossil fuels, not in decades, now. This day is just a number, but for many people and ecosystems it’s a loss of life and livelihood.”