It's hot as hell—and it's going to get worse

Tuesday was an absolutely astounding day around the planet. In city after city, previous all-time high temperature records weren’t just broken, they were shattered. In Rome, it was 109.2 degrees Fahrenheit. In parts of Spain, over 112 degrees. In Sicily, over 115 degrees.

On the same day, temperatures in Sanbao, China, hit 126 degrees while in Death Valley, it reached 129 degrees. That last number was a record for the date, but it still fell short of the all-time high, which was a supposed 134 degrees recorded at Death Valley in 1913. (Many sources have bumped that number down to 130 degrees, citing issues with the 1913 reading.) If the Death Valley number wasn’t an all-time high it was the only one, because at those other locations the temperature records for any date were broken by as much as 3.5 degrees.

It’s not just the absolute heat that’s amazing, it’s the persistence. Almost a year ago, the world set an all-time high temperature reading on July 24, 2022. That value tied the old record, set in 2016, for a single day. Then it dropped back.

This year is different. On July 3, 2023, the old temperature record was broken. Since then the temperature has never fallen to what had been the previous record. For 17 straight days, the Earth has been hotter than it was on any previous date in the last 100,000 years. And by some measures, the rise in temperature this year alone matches all the warming over the last 15 years. The climate crisis has ceased being a marathon and become a sprint.