If you’ve been paying attention, then this shouldn’t come as a surprise – but once again, Earth has topped its previous “hottest day ever.”

This year, it was on the 4th of July.

In fact, according to climate data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction, it was probably the hottest day in over 125,000 years.

The average world temperature in 2023 is the hottest it’s been since 1979, when data began being collected. Scientists believe the spike is down to global warming, summer in the northern hemisphere, and El Nino (as ever).

The hottest day on record before July 4?

July 3. 2023.

Before that, it was back on August 14, 2016, which also took place during an El Nino year and resulted in bleached coral reefs and heatwaves that decimated livestock, crops, and access to clean water.

Paulo Ceppi says if that sounds grim, that’s because it is.

“Looking to the future, we can expect global warming to continue and hence temperature records to be broken increasingly frequently, unless we rapidly act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.”

Do we think that’s likely to happen any time soon, never mind immediately?

I don’t know. Maybe we should ask the aliens what to do?