July hottest month ever recorded

By agreenerlifeagreenerworld on August 31, 2015 • ( 1 Comment )

July was the hottest month ever recorded. Photo credit: Asian Development Bank via Flickr.

By Anders Lorenzen

Data out from the US scientific government body, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), states that July was the hottest month ever recorded. The ocean temperature record for July was also a new high .

It comes as no huge surprise that July set a new temperature record, as historically it is globally the warmest month. As this is also an El Nino year, temperatures are expected to be higher than last year. But it does follow the climate warming trend, which sees more and more warming records being set.

In July, the average surface temperature across land and oceans was 0.81 C above the 20th century average. This surpassed the previous 1998 record at 0.08 C. It does not take great maths skills to reason that not only was that 1998 record beaten, but it was beaten quite convincingly.

This NOAA map breakdown above shows the temperature levels across the planet. It is evident that from the south to the north of the Equator it is warmer than average, which contributes to the all time July high. Parts of Africa and Latin America show the highest number of record warm temperatures, as well as some isolated events in Southern Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia, the western USA. Scandinavia, the UK and western and middle Russia recorded either no change or colder than usual.

These findings are in line with predictions made by climate scientists, about the impacts we can expect as climate change speeds up.

Some scientists will caution us, because as we are in an El Nino year, the tests should be measured in a non El Nino year. But green groups would argue that these findings show that action on climate change is more urgent than ever.

Scientists and world leaders will gather in Paris at the end of this year to discuss a global deal on tackling climate change. It has been agreed by world leaders that a deal must be reached at this UN COP21 summit.

June warmest month on record

Once again extreme weather events draw headlines during international climate talks

Never miss a story, sign up to our weekly newsletter: