TRENTON, NJ – It’s been hot and humid in New Jersey all week, but the incident wasn’t isolated. Last week marked the hottest month globally in recorded history.
According to data from the U.S. National Centers on Environmental Prediction, Thursday marked the hottest day ever recorded globally. The global average temperature reached 63.01 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the previous records set earlier in the week.
In New Jersey and New York, temperatures reached 90 degrees for most of the week with extremely high humidity.
This record-breaking day follows intense heatwaves in the United States and China, as well as a deadly heatwave in Mexico that claimed over 100 lives. Additionally, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reported that June 2023 was the hottest month on record, surpassing the previous June record set in 2019.
Scientists attribute these records to a combination of the short-term temperature boost from the El Niño weather pattern and the long-term global warming trend caused by human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. The El Niño pattern has resulted in warmer sea surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean this year.
Experts warn that more record-breaking days are expected in the future due to ongoing global warming. Saleemul Huq, director of Bangladesh’s International Centre for Climate Change and Development, emphasized that we should anticipate many more hottest days to come.