Beating the record set the previous day, July 4th was the hottest day on Earth in the last 125,000 years, USA Today reports, with the average global temperature reaching 62.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Human-caused climate change combined with a stronger El Niño and the start of the Northern Hemisphere summer to set the highest recorded temperature since the data set was first collected in 1979. Forensic indicators show the temperature was the highest since the Sangamonian Stage of the last interglacial period.