JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It was a hot Independence Day across Southeast Georgia and Northeast Florida, but it was also the warmest day in recorded history on Earth.
The estimated global temperature climbed to 62.9° Fahrenheit, the warmest temp ever recorded.
So what does this mean? And could we get even warmer?
How to measure global temperatures
The 62.9° temperature may not sound warm, but this is the average temp for the entire planet.
This number includes temperatures at the chilly poles, the hot deserts and all of the oceans.
As you can imagine, measuring temperature in real-time on the entire planet is difficult.
The University of Maine uses a climate weather model to create near real-time data.
Really the warmest day in recorded history?
July 4th’s global temperature is the warmest that has been recorded.
High-quality global data sets go back to 1979, but other data sets indicate global temperatures have likely never been this warm since records have been kept.
It is highly likely Earth has been warmer at some point in its entire history, but this is the warmest global temperature that has been accurately recorded.
Could it get even hotter?
July 4 actually beat Monday, July 3, as the warmest global day ever recorded.
And the global temperature may continue to rise.
July is always the warmest month on Earth, as the northern hemisphere was more land than the southern hemisphere.
Land can hold more heat than oceans, which is why the peak summer month in the northern hemisphere produces the warmest global temperature.
And we have more of the month of July to go.
Last year, the highest global temperature was recorded on July 24, with a global temp of 62.5° Fahrenheit.
This tied the former hottest global temp record that was set in late July of 2016.
An El Nino pattern is also developing, which often increases the global temperature slightly.
A word of caution
The numbers that are used to create real-time global temperatures are considered preliminary.
A more in-depth look by other computer models and by climate scientists will be done over the next several weeks and months to confirm the data.
Regardless of what the final results will be, July is off to an incredibly warm start globally, and it may get even hotter on the planet in the coming weeks.