July 2021 was the hottest July ever recorded worldwide, the US government has reported.
This information was compiled and released in August by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US Department of Commerce. “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 NOAA Administrator Dr. Rick Spinrad. “This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.”
According to NOAA data, temperatures were already warming ahead of this year’s July record. July’s temperatures were 0.02°F (0.01°C) higher than the previous record set in July 2016, which was later tied in 2019 and again in 2020. The recorded monthly temperatures go back 142 years.
Breaking the data down further, the Northern Hemisphere’s land-surface-only temperatures broke July’s record by an “unprecedented” 2.77°F, while Asia had its hottest July and Europe recorded its second-hottest July on record.
While no one knows what the rest of this year will bring, estimates suggest that 2021, at the very least, should come in as one of the ten warmest years ever. According to Spinrad, “a sobering IPCC report finds that human influence is, unequivocally, causing climate change, and it confirms the impacts are widespread and rapidly intensifying.”
Read more on this story from NOAA.
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration