• In April 2024, temperatures hit 44°C in Jaipur, India, and a scorching 50°C in Shaheed Benazirabad, Pakistan, as a severe heat wave swept across South Asia.
• Cambodia and Myanmar set new highs in April 2024, with 42.8°C and 48.2°C respectively. In 2022, Australia and Uruguay matched their national records at 50.7°C and 44.0°C, while the UK broke the 40°C barrier for the first time ever.
• In 2021, one of the hottest years globally, Canada registered a staggering 49.6°C, marking the third-highest national temperature in the world during this period—remarkable for a country known for its cold climate. That same summer, Italy reported 48.8°C in Syracuse, a European record later confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization.
• Even Antarctica felt the heat: in 2020, the Esperanza Base recorded temperatures above 18°C during the austral summer. And Europe has seen repeated summer heatwaves break long-standing records, from France (46°C in 2019) to Germany (42.6°C) and Belgium (41.8°C).
• Despite the growing list of extremes, the highest temperature ever officially recorded remains 56.7°C in California’s Death Valley, set back in 1913.