The World's Record Heat Waves
A heat wave is sweeping across South Asia, with temperatures having reached 44°C in India’s Jaipur and 50°C in Pakistan’s Shaheed Benazirabad in April. Experts warn that these conditions are becoming the “new normal” for the region. Where temperatures used to heat up from May and throughout June, such levels are now creeping earlier.
According to NASA, there is “unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate”. Meanwhile, data from Copernicus, the European Earth Observation program for the European Space Agency, shows that July 22, 2024 was the world’s hottest daily global average temperature since the institution’s records began in 1940 (hitting 17.16°C).
At a regional scale too, absolute temperature records are being broken around the globe. The following map features a non-exhaustive selection of national (and/or continental) records set in the last six years alone.
Some of the most recent records were set in South Asia in April, 2024, when an exceptional heatwave hit the region. Several national records were broken, including in Cambodia (42.8°C) and Myanmar (48.2°C).
Meanwhile, Australia and Uruguay matched their national records in 2022, with 50.7°C in Onslow and 44.0°C in Florida respectively, as the UK saw the mercury break an all-time high in July, 2022 as it passed the 40°C barrier.
During the summer of 2021, one of the hottest on Earth, Canada, Spain and Italy recorded peak temperatures. The Italian record, 48.8°C at Syracuse, was reported to be the highest temperature ever measured in Europe, which was certified by the WMO in 2024.
In Antarctica, a new record was hit in 2020 at the Esperanza base during the austral summer when temperatures rose to over 18°C. One year earlier, the French national record of 46°C was measured at Vérargues (Hérault), while the 2019 heatwave also saw other records broken in Europe, such as in Belgium (41.8°C) and Germany (42.6°C).
According to the WMO, the world record is still officially attributed to Furnace Creek, in California’s Death Valley National Park, with 56.7°C reached in 1913.