US agency terms July as ‘World's hottest month on record’

Rick Spinrad, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated, "July is typically the world's warmest month of the year, but July 2021 outdid itself as the hottest July and month ever recorded".

"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.

With only 1.1 degrees Celsius of warming so far, an unbroken cascade of deadly weather disasters bulked up by climate change has swept the world this summer, from asphalt-melting heatwaves in Canada, to rainstorms turning city streets in China and Germany into rivers, to untamable wildfires sweeping Greece and California.

NOAA said the land-surface only temperature for the Northern Hemisphere was the highest ever recorded for July -- 2.77 degrees Fahrenheit above average, surpassing the previous record in 2012.

Asia had its hottest July ever, surpassing 2010, it said, while Europe had its second-hottest July, trailing only 2018.

CREDIT:  BBC