So Hot Right Now

- Dann Mitchell

During 2018, many parts of the world experienced high temperatures beyond what has been seen in previous years. Widespread heatwaves have been observed on every continent, with weather records being broken left, right and centre. On 27 June, Oman reported a night-time temperature that never dropped below 42.6°C, a world record for the highest minimum temperature within a 24-hour period.

Across the Red Sea, in the Sahara Desert, a new continental record maximum daytime temperature of 51.3°C was observed. Elsewhere on the planet, local temperature records have been broken in regions as diverse as the Arctic Circle, the US, Japan, Greece, the UK and South Africa (see box).

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