ASSOCIATED PRESS • July 22, 2023
The summer of 2023 is behaving like a broken record about broken records. Nearly every major climate-tracking organization proclaimed June the hottest June ever. Then July 4 became the globe’s hottest day according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer. It was quickly overtaken by July 5 and July 6. Next came the hottest week, a tad more official, stamped into the books by the World Meteorological Organization and the Japanese Meteorological Agency. With a summer of extreme weather records dominating the news, meteorologists and scientists say records like these give a glimpse of the big picture: a warming planet caused by climate change.