The world is sweating – the hottest days are followed by the hottest week in history

Climate change – or climate catastrophe as some prefer to call it – is happening. In recent days, the average world record temperature has been significantly exceeded several times. And there is no end in sight yet. After this week we are entering a historic month in terms of warmth.

The University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute provides detailed information on global temperatures since 1979 on their “Climate Reanalyzer” website.

According to the website, since data collection began, the warmest days to date have been July 24, 2022 and August 13 and 14, 2016, with respective daily average temperatures of 16.92 degrees Celsius.

On Monday, July 3, 17.01 degrees Celsius was measured. This record was almost pulverized immediately afterwards on Tuesday with 17.18 degrees Celsius. The record was equalized on Wednesday and surpassed again on Thursday: the world thermometer showed 17.23 degrees Celsius on July 6.

That means: Every day this week -- at least for a short while -- was the hottest day on record. So, due to the four record days, it is possible, if not likely, that this week will be the hottest on record.

Responsible for the temperature explosion is probably - in addition to man-made climate change - the weather phenomenon El Niño. The last El Niño event around the turn of the year 2015/16 set record temperatures on individual days that are still valid today.

However, the weather phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific is just beginning and it is very likely that it will get even hotter. For example, Dr Paulo Ceppi of Imperial College London told the Guardian he thought it was possible the temperature record could be broken again in the coming days or weeks.

Dr Karsten Haustein noted, also to the British "Guardian", that July could be the hottest month on record. All times in this case means since the last warm period about 120,000 years ago.

The map below shows the deviation of the temperatures on July 7, 2023 compared to the statistical average temperature between 1979 and 2000.

Antarctica is striking: in some areas it is more than 20 degrees Celsius too warm, while in other areas it is around 20 degrees Celsius too cold. Yesterday, all of Antarctica was 3.7 degrees Celsius above the statistical average. This means that their temperature surplus is significantly higher than the surpluses in the other regions of the world defined by the «Climate Change Institute».

Anyone who now feels reminded of the disaster film "The Day After Tomorrow" is not so wrong: as in the American cult film, Antarctica and the oceans also play an important role in the development of global climatic conditions in reality. In March of this year, an article from New South Wales University appeared in Nature Magazine. It's about deep-sea currents that can be disturbed or even interrupted by the meltwater from Antarctica's gigantic ice sheets.

If deep-sea currents collapsed, it would most likely have catastrophic consequences for global climate and marine biodiversity. The currents are extremely important for the transport of nutrients and oxygen in the world's oceans, without which a mass marine extinction could occur. Also important are the currents in the global heat balance. If they were disrupted, it could accelerate the melting of the Antarctic ice sheets, causing sea levels to rise dramatically. Entire climate zones would also potentially collapse. Without the currents of the Atlantic, Europe could become much colder in winter and much warmer in summer.