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Sunday was the hottest day ever recorded globally, according to preliminary data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The global average surface temperature reached 17.09 degrees Celsius (62.76 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday, slightly higher than the 17.08 degrees Celsius (62.74 degrees Fahrenheit) recorded last July.
A heatwave has hit large swaths of the United States, Europe and Russia over the past week.
Copernicus confirmed that the record for average daily temperature set last year appears to have been broken on Sunday.
Last year, climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels caused extreme heat across the Northern Hemisphere, with four consecutive days of record-breaking temperatures from July 3 to July 6.
According to Copernicus, each month from June 2023 onwards will be the 13th consecutive month that will be the hottest on Earth since records began compared to the same period in the past.
Climate change and the El Niño weather phenomenon, which ended in April, have caused temperatures to rise faster than ever this year, leading some scientists to suggest that 2024 could surpass 2023 as the hottest year since records began.
Spain was hit by its first real heatwave of the year last week, with temperatures reaching 40C over large swaths of the country, while Italy, Greece and other parts of southern Europe also struggled to stay cool.
Although it was a relatively tolerable spring compared with the record heatwaves of 2023 and 2022, millions of Spaniards continued to suffer from the heat in the aftermath.
The country’s weather agency said only the northwest and north Atlantic coast would be spared.
Forecasters said a large amount of hot air travelling across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa would be trapped in central and southern Spain.
This, combined with the typically harsh summer sun, means medieval cities such as Seville, Toledo and Granada are scorching hot.
2022 is set to be Spain’s hottest year since records began in 1961, with 2023 set to be the second-hottest. Last year’s first heatwave arrived in June.
Officials and experts agree that rising temperatures are being blamed on climate change, which is causing prolonged droughts and wildfires in the Mediterranean and other parts of the world.
Hot, dry winds swept across Greece, causing a prolonged heatwave that reached its peak on Wednesday and Thursday.
Temperatures reached 43 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country, while nighttime temperatures in some parts of Athens remained above 30 degrees Celsius for the past 10 days.
Firefighters were battling two large blazes on Thursday, one near a village on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki and another wildfire on the island of Kea near Athens.
Emergency authorities ordered evacuations in two areas of Kea, while local media reported several homes were damaged in the fire near Thessaloniki.
“The risk of severe wildfires is very high over the next few days and we urge the public to exercise particular caution,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said.
“Just one spark can cause a catastrophe.”
Serbia’s state-run electricity company reported Tuesday that electricity consumption from air conditioning had reached an all-time high.