The first three weeks of July have been so warm that it’s almost certain the month will become the hottest ever recorded, the World Meteorological Association announced Thursday.
June was the warmest month ever.
“Record-breaking temperatures are part of the trend of drastic increases in global temperatures,” Carlo Buontempo, the director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a news release, adding that human-caused emissions are the “main driver” of rising temperatures.
Copernicus, part of the European Union’s space program, performs satellite observations of Earth. This new record for monthly temperatures is based upon climate data ,, which combine on-the ground observations with satellite data as well as climate models to produce estimated temperature estimates across the Earth dating back several decades. The approach fills gaps in the observational record, and it is used by scientists worldwide to evaluate the impacts of climate change.
The data says global mean temperatures on Earth’s surface were just above 62. 5 degrees Fahrenheit through Sunday, exceeding the previous high of 61. 9 degrees from July 2019.
The Southwest U.S., and southern Europe experienced simultaneous, historic heatwaves this July . This would have been “virtually unthinkable” without climate change. A third heat wave in China would have been an extremely unlikely event if not for global warming, the group found.
Extreme weather has made headlines all summer in the U.S. The country has endured a summer of smoke from record-setting Canadian wildfires, flood-causing bouts of extreme precipitation in the Northeast and hot tub temperatures along the Florida coastline.
“The extreme weather which has affected many millions of people in July is unfortunately the harsh reality of climate change and a foretaste of the future,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a news release.
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