A climate scientist has warned of a “death sentence” as the world registered its hottest day in recorded history.
It came as the United Nations’ weather agency officially declared an El Nino was underway.
On Monday July 3, the world’s average temperature reached 17.01 degrees, as countries sizzled through heatwaves.
It was the highest temperature recorded globally, according to data from the US National Centres for Environmental Prediction.
The mercury surpassed the August 2016 record of 16.92 degrees.
The southern US has been suffering under an intense heat dome in recent weeks. In China, an enduring heatwave continued, with temperatures above 35 degrees.
North Africa has had temperatures near 50 degrees.
Even Antarctica, currently in its winter, is registering anomalously high temperatures. Ukraine’s Vernadsky Research Base in the white continent’s Argentine Islands recently broke its July temperature record with 8.7 degrees.
“This is not a milestone we should be celebrating,” climate scientist Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London, said.
“It’s a death sentence for people and ecosystems.”
Scientists said climate change, combined with the emerging El Nino pattern, were to blame.
“Unfortunately, it promises to only be the first in a series of new records set this year as increasing emissions of [carbon dioxide] and greenhouse gases coupled with a growing El Nino event push temperatures to new highs,” Berkeley Earth research scientist Zeke Hausfather said.
Late on Tuesday, the World Meteorological Organisation officially declared an El Nino had arrived, warning it paved the way for a further spike in global temperatures and extreme weather conditions.
The WMO said the El Niño event throughout the second half of 2023 was predicted to be “at least moderate strength.”
It urged governments across the globe to respond to its declaration by taking immediate steps to help protect lives and livelihoods.
“The onset of El Niño will greatly increase the likelihood of breaking temperature records and triggering more extreme heat in many parts of the world and in the ocean,” WMO secretary general Petteri Taalas said.
“The declaration of an El Niño by WMO is the signal to governments around the world to mobilise preparations to limit the impacts on our health, our ecosystems and our economies.
“Early warnings and anticipatory action of extreme weather events associated with this major climate phenomenon are vital to save lives and livelihoods.”
Despite the WMO update, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology is yet to officially declare an El Nino. It issued an official alert a month ago, declaring a 70 per cent chance of an El Niño developing this year.
On Tuesday, BOM senior climatologist Zhi-Weng Chua told The New Daily that while the bureau believed an El Nino event was coming, it wasn’t guaranteed.
“If it develops, we can probably expect it is more likely for maximum and minimum temperatures to be broken,” Mr Zhi-Weng said.
“If we do get drier conditions as well as warmer-than-average conditions, especially towards summer, that increases fire risk.”
According to the weather bureau, El Niño describes changes in the tropical Pacific Ocean that affect global weather. They occur, on average, every three to five years.
During El Niño, there is a higher chance of drier weather in eastern Australia and it’s more likely to be warmer than usual for the southern two-thirds of Australia.
Any change this year would come after three consecutive years of La Nina. It is El Nino’s opposite and describes when sea surface temperatures across the Pacific Ocean are lower than normal, resulting in colder and wetter weather.
The likely change has sparked warnings that Australia is in for a dire bushfire season in coming months.
