World Records Hottest Day While Wildfires Threaten Mediterranean

The world recorded its hottest ever day, as many parts of the Mediterranean face extreme wildfire risks.

Sunday witnessed the highest average temperature on Earth, breaching a previous record set a year ago, according to provisional data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Global average temperatures have already hit or exceeded a key climate threshold for 12 months, highlighting the challenge in limiting global warming to below 1.5C above the pre-industrial era. Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of heat waves, bringing extreme weather events from flooding to wildfires.

Global warming is bringing hotter conditions to southern Europe, with temperatures exceeding 40C for the past two weeks in Greece. That’s turbo-charging the threat from wildfires.

In Greece, there were 33 wildfires in 24 hours through 6:30 p.m. on Monday. Athens and southern parts of the country remain on high alert. Cooler weather will bringing some relief this week, although temperatures are still expected to top 39C in some parts of the mainland on Tuesday.

Spain is also under extreme fire risk this week as temperatures soar in the south of the country. Seville and Cordoba will approach 43C on Wednesday, according to Spanish forecaster AEMET. Parts of the south of France and Italy are also at risk from wildfires.

Today’s #EFFIS Fire Danger Forecast 🔥 focuses on the Iberian Peninsula, showing that large areas of #Spain 🇪🇸 and #Portugal 🇵🇹 are in varying danger levels🟠🔴🟤

⚫️‘Very Extreme Danger’ levels are present in the #Murcia and #Andalucía regions🇪🇸📎https://t.co/XL7jHVJ8Mv pic.twitter.com/gxn6Euxq60

— Copernicus EMS (@CopernicusEMS) July 23, 2024

Further north, Berlin and Paris are set for heat wave conditions at the start of August. The mean temperature in the German capital is forecast to rise as high as 28C on Aug. 6, 8 degrees above the 30-year norm.

Extreme heat has wreaked havoc across many parts of the global economy already this year, disrupting air travel to power grids.

The average temperature for the year through June 2024 was 1.64C higher than the era from 1850 to 1900, according to Copernicus. Last month was the hottest ever June, the 13th consecutive time a month has set a new average temperature record.

The Paris Agreement set in 2015 seeks to limit planetary warming to below 2C above the pre-industrial average, and ideally to 1.5C.