According to recently released data from the United States’ National Office for Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), last July was the warmest month in the world in records, 142 years ago. ” July is usually the hottest month of the year , and in 2021 it has also been the one with the highest temperatures in history as far as we know,” explains Rick Spinrad, administrator of NOAA. “This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the world.”
The month of July 2021 in figures
Worldwide, the combined ocean and land surface temperature was 0.93 ° C above the 20th century average of 15.8 ° C. It was 0.01 ° C higher than the previous record, set in July 2016, which would later be tied in 2019 and 2020.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the Earth’s surface temperature was the highest ever recorded in July, with a temperature 1.54 ° C above average, and surpassing the previous record, set in 2012.
In Europe, July 2021 was the second hottest, tied with July 2010 and behind 2018.
Regarding the sea ice cover, this was variable according to the hemisphere: the extent in the Arctic was the fourth smallest for the month of July in a 43-year record. Only July 2012, 2019 and 2020 had a smaller extent of sea ice. Antarctic sea ice extent was above average in July, the largest July sea ice extent since 2015 and the eighth highest on record.
Extreme heat and global climate change
With data from last month, it is still highly likely that 2021 will end up positioning itself as one of the ten warmest years on record in the world , according to the NOAA National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) Annual Global Temperature Classification.
The extreme heat detailed in NOAA’s monthly NCEI reports is also a reflection of the long-term changes described in a major report released this week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change external link.
“Scientists around the world have just provided the most up-to-date information on how the climate is changing,” Spinrad explained in a statement. “It is a sobering IPCC report that concludes that human influence is unequivocally causing climate change, and confirms that the impacts are widespread and rapidly intensifying.”
Source: NOAA
