A stifling heat wave could break a record at Death Valley National Park —known as the hottest place on Earth—for its earliest high temperature,124 degrees Fahrenheit, at this point in the season.

Global average temperatures and CO₂ levels continue to soar. May was Earth's 12th consecutive hottest month on record, officials announced this week.

A streak of record-setting heat that began last summer has now persisted for an entire year across the globe, researchers announced Wednesday, pushing Earth closer to a dangerous threshold that the world’s nations have pledged not to cross.