A central New York town keeps breaking daily heat records, with the thermometer rising to levels rarely seen this time of year.

What's happening?

On June 23, the high temperature in Syracuse, New York, reached 93.9 degrees Fahrenheit, Syracuse.com reported. That broke the day's record of 92 degrees, which had been set in 1975.

It felt even hotter, with Syracuse's heat index spiking to 103 degrees.

The record-breaking day was just one part of a heat wave that has gripped central New York. Forecasted temperatures for that day, and others surrounding it, reached as high as 98 degrees.

Only twice in Syracuse's history has the city reached 98 degrees or hotter in June — once in 1934, and once in 1953.

Why are heat waves important?

Record-breaking heat waves aren't just a thing in New York. They're becoming more common across the globe. In fact, the entire planet has shattered temperature records each year for the past decade.

Last year was the warmest in recorded history, with the global surface temperature 2.32 degrees above 20th-century averages. That broke a record set in 2023 and means that each of the 10 warmest years in history occurred in the past decade.

That trend isn't expected to stop anytime soon. In May, the World Meteorological Organization announced that temperatures are expected to continue rising, with an 80% chance that one of the next five years will break the record for the warmest year ever.

These heat waves are just one example of extreme weather events becoming more commonplace. The scientific community is in agreement that, as more polluting gases are released into the atmosphere, causing the planet to warm, events such as heat waves and droughts are happening more frequently and with more severity.

The problem is so bad that one expert has referred to a warming climate as "steroids for weather."

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What's being done about heat waves?

Although the United States has pulled out of the Paris Agreement, nearly 200 countries are still aligned with the global climate treaty.

The legally binding treaty, developed in 2015, aims to keep global temperature increases below a threshold of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit over pre-industrial levels. If global leaders can achieve that, the United Nations says, the planet can avoid even more catastrophic weather events.

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