July 3 was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth with average temperatures exceeding 17C for the first time

Data obtained by a United States climate agency shows that Monday (July 3) was the hottest day ever recorded, with the average global temperature exceeding 17C for the first time.

This comes after the weather in the UK has taken a dip in recent days, despite the Met Office confirming it was the hottest June recorded in the UK with an average monthly temperature of 15.8C.

Previously, the highest average temperature recorded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was 16.92C in August 2016 and July 2022, but the figure for July 3, 2023 was 17.01C.

Robert Rhode, who is a climate scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, said he was ‘confident’ that the temperature recorded was the highest ever since records began, saying El Niño, combined with climate change was driving the temperature up.

Dr Rohde said: “We will keep passing these thresholds every few years if we have El Niño variability on top of global warming, until we get global warming under control.”

The global ocean is also hotter than ever, hitting a new record temperature of 21.1C in April. It’s not the only record achieved, as in 2022, temperatures in the UK exceeded 40C for the first time ever during a heatwave.