News brief

July 22 breaks record for hottest day on Earth. The European climate service Copernicus said July 22 broke the previous day’s record of the world’s hottest day ever. Climate scientists say it’s plausible that this is the warmest it has been in 120,000 years because of human-caused climate change. While scientists cannot be certain that July 22 was the very hottest day throughout that period, average temperatures – 17.15 degrees Celsius or 62.87 degrees Fahrenheit – have not been this high since long before humans developed agriculture. While 2024 has been extremely warm, what kicked this week into new territory was a warmer-than-usual Antarctic winter, according to Copernicus.