Global Heat Records

The average temperature across the world reached its highest mark in more than four decades of recordkeeping Tuesday, with record temperatures observed in places ranging from Canada to Beijing.

The measurement is technically unofficial—the data were taken by the University of Maine's climate simulator, a platform that incorporates global satellite data and numerous computer simulations and is used by federal agencies in climate projections. Worldwide, measurements showed an average temperature of 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit, about 1.8 degrees above the 1979-2000 average (the analysis uses records dating back to 1979).

Scientists attribute the heat to a range of factors beyond climate change, including warmth in the North Atlantic Ocean and the formation of an El Niño weather pattern