Earth reaches hottest day ever recorded 4 days in a row

As if we needed another sign that the climate of this world is being warped with dangerous consequences planet Earth has just had the four hottest days on record in history all in a row.

This week the record for the average global temperature which had been set in August 2016 was broken multiple times in a four-day stretch.

If you didn't experience sweltering conditions where you were living then you're one of the lucky ones, but since these figures we're working with are an average, spare a thought for the people suffering on the other end of things.

According to an analysis of National Centers for Environmental Protection (NCEP) data by researchers from the University of Maine, the start of this week saw the record for the hottest average global temperature.

A record from almost seven years ago which had stood at 16.92C (62.456F) was broken on Monday (3 July), with planet Earth's average temperature being 17.01C (62.618F).

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That record didn't last very long at all, as the very next day the world's average temperature hit 17.18C (62.924F) and it stayed there the following day.

What's worse than the world having the three hottest days on record consecutively I hear you ask? Of course the answer is having the four hottest days on record all in a row.

Temperatures climbed even higher on 6 July to reach a global average of 17.23C (63.014F), meaning that the former hottest day on Earth ever from 2016 is now at spot number five on the list and all four days above it came this week.

The scorching summers are made worse through climate change and it's all being made worse because of something called the El Niño Southern Oscillation.

It's a weather effect which switches between three stages, hot, cold and neutral, and it's pretty damn hot right about now.

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The effects of these punishingly hot days can be felt all around the world, with an estimated 57 million Americans exposed to dangerous heat this Independence Day.

Elsewhere in the world a heatwave is baking China while in some parts of the north of the African continent temperatures have hit 50C (122F).

While our records for global temperatures go back to 1940, climate expert Jennifer Francis told CNN that we had likely seen the hottest week on Earth in 'at least 100,000 years'.

Experts are concerned that the record which had stood since 2016 and has been broken three times already this week could be broken several times more by the end of the summer.

The average global temperature tends to peak in late July or early August so having the top four hottest days ever recorded in the world at the beginning of July could be a sign that even more punishing temperatures are to come.