Driving the news: The indication that Friday was the first day on record to have a global average surface temperature above 2°C when compared to preindustrial levels, emerged first from a data set maintained by the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
Why it matters: A daily global average surface temperature climb to greater than 2°C above preindustrial levels indicates just how quickly the planet is warming, including some of the extremes that are now possible.
Between the lines: The data set that shows the record, known as ERA5, comes from a process known as reanalysis, in which a computer model uses surface temperature readings from land and ocean sources as well as algorithms to arrive in near time at an accurate global temperature reading for a single day.
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