July: World’s hottest month on record
July was the hottest month globally ever recorded, a US scientific agency said on Friday, in the latest data to sound the alarm about the climate crisis.
“July is typically the world’s warmest month of the year, but July 2021 outdid itself as the hottest July and month ever recorded,” said Rick Spinrad, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe,” Spinrad said in a statement citing data from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).
NOAA said combined land and ocean surface temperature was 1.67 degrees Fahrenheit (0.93 degrees Celsius) above the 20th-century average of 60.4 degrees Fahrenheit, making it the hottest July since record-keeping began 142 years ago.
The month was 0.02 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the previous record set in July 2016, which was equaled in 2019 and 2020.
However, according to data released by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, last month was the third-warmest July on record globally.
