People escape the searing summer heat at Baghdad Aquatic Center in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, July, 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Earth鈥檚 average temperature set a new unofficial record high on Thursday, July 6, the third such milestone in a week that already rated as the hottest on record.
The planetary average hit 63 degrees Fahrenheit, 17.23 degrees Celsius, surpassing the 62.9 and 17.18-degree marks set Tuesday, July 4, and equaled Wednesday, July 5, according to data from the University of Maine鈥檚 Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world鈥檚 condition.
That average includes places that are sweltering under dangerous heat 鈥� like Jingxing, China, which checked in almost 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) 鈥� and the merely unusually warm, like Antarctica, where temperatures across much of the continent were as much as 8 degrees Fahrenheit (4.5 degrees Celsius) above normal this week.
READ: For the third day in a row, the Earth鈥檚 average temperature remained at a record high
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday issued a note of caution about the Maine tool鈥檚 findings, saying it could not confirm data that results in part from computer modeling.
鈥淎lthough NOAA cannot validate the methodology or conclusion of the University of Maine analysis, we recognize that we are in a warm period due to climate change,鈥� NOAA said.
Still, the Maine data has been widely regarded as another troubling sign of climate change around the globe. Some climate scientists said this week they weren鈥檛 surprised to see the unofficial records.
READ: World registers hottest day ever recorded on July 3
Robert Watson, a scientist and former chairman of the UN鈥檚 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said governments and the private sector 鈥渁re not truly committed to [addressing] climate change.鈥� Nor are citizens, he said.
鈥淭hey demand cheap energy, cheap food and do not want to pay the true cost of food and energy,鈥� Watson said.
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