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For the third time in a week, Earth sets an unofficial heat record. What’s behind those big numbers?

Earth’s average temperature set a new unofficial record high last Thursday, the third such milestone in a week that already rated as the hottest on record and what one prominent scientist says could be the hottest in 120,000 years.

But it’s also a record with some legitimate scientific questions and caveats, so much so that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has distanced itself from it.

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