Experts alarmed
Second hottest July since records began
The global temperature reached the second-hottest level ever recorded last July. Only last year's July was warmer.
The month was 1.48 degrees Celsius above the estimated July average for 1850 to 1900, the pre-industrial reference period, according to the European Union's Copernicus climate change service.
To determine the temperature, billions of measurements from satellites, ships, airplanes and weather stations around the globe are added together. The average surface air temperature in July was 16.91 degrees - just 0.04 degrees lower than last year's record temperature.
From June 2023 to June 2024, Copernicus announced a new record high every month since data recording began. This 13-month record stretch has now come to an end - "but only by a hair's breadth", as Copernicus Deputy Director Samantha Burgess emphasizes.
Climate change continues
"The overall context has not changed, our climate is continuing to warm," she points out. "The devastating effects of climate change began long before 2023 and will continue until global greenhouse gas emissions have fallen to zero."
Among other things, the natural weather phenomenon El Niño could have contributed to the record temperatures. Every few years, it causes a rise in water temperatures in parts of the Pacific and higher air temperatures. Currently, the counterpart La Niña is probably developing, writes Copernicus.
Despite the minimal decline over the month as a whole, July saw the warmest days ever recorded: On July 22 and 23, the global average temperatures were 17.16 and 17.15 degrees respectively. As this small difference is within the uncertainty factor of the data, it is not possible to say with certainty which day was the hottest ever, writes Copernicus.
It was cooler in north-western Europe
In Europe, the average temperature in July exceeded the mean value for the July months from 1991 to 2020 by 1.49 degrees. This made it the second warmest July since records began in Europe, it said. While temperatures in north-western Europe were average or even cooler than usual, southern and eastern Europe recorded above-average temperatures.
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