EARTH’S average temperature set a new unofficial record high on Thursday, the third such milestone in a week.

The planetary average hit 17.23°C, surpassing the 17.18°C mark set on Tuesday and equalled on Wednesday, according to data from the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyser.

That average includes places that are sweltering in dangerous heat such as Jingxing in China, which recorded 43.3°C.

Even Antarctica was as much as 4.5°C above normal this week.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that although it could not “validate the methodology or conclusion of the University of Maine analysis, we recognise that we are in a warm period due to climate change.”

Nonetheless, the Maine data has been widely regarded as another troubling sign of climate change around the globe. Some climate scientists said this week that they were not surprised to see the unofficial records.

Robert Watson, a scientist and former chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned that governments and the private sector “are not truly committed to addressing climate change.”

Nor are citizens, he said, adding: “They demand cheap energy, cheap food and do not want to pay the true cost of food and energy.”