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The European meteorological body Copernicus confirmed on Tuesday that July was the warmest month in recorded history. According to weather experts, this year has been the third-hottest on record thus far, implying that 2023 has a potential to surpass 2016 as the hottest year on record.
“These records have dire consequences for both people and the planet, which are exposed to ever more frequent and intense extreme events,” Copernicus Deputy Director Samantha Burgess told the Financial Times on Tuesday.
The month’s global average temperature of 16.95 degrees Celsius (62.51 degrees Fahrenheit) was around 0.3 degrees Celsius (0.6 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than July 2019, the previous record holder, and 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.3 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the average July from 1991 to 2020.
The conclusion validated projections made last month by the EU organization as well as the World Meteorological Organization that this July’s temperatures would greatly exceed the old record. The two groups claimed that the first three weeks of July were the warmest three weeks ever recorded globally, with July 6 being the hottest single day.
Furthermore, Copernicus reported that global average sea surface temperatures reached a record high in July, noting that the oceans were half a degree C (0.9 degrees F) hotter than the previous 30 years, while Antarctic sea ice cover was measured at less than any previous July on record, 15% lower than the average for this time of year.
The average temperature in July was 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than in the pre-industrial era, a figure that climate experts have pounced upon in light of the Paris Climate Agreement target of limiting long-term global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
While Copernicus had designated July 2019 as the previous record-holder, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization (NOAA) determined that July 2021’s average combined land and ocean-surface temperature was 0.93 degrees Celsius higher than the 20th century average, breaking records set in July 2016, 2019, and 2020. Copernicus’ July projections outnumber NOAA’s for 2021, despite the fact that NOAA had not made any pronouncements as of Tuesday.
Copernicus’ temperature records only go back to 1940, while NOAA’s only go back to 1850, making it difficult for climate specialists to contextualize modern-day heat waves. That hasn’t stopped some experts, including Potsdam Institute for Climate Research scientist Stefan Rahmstorf, from telling HuffPost that July was “the warmest month on Earth in ten thousand years” or even 120,000 years, citing studies that look at markers like tree rings.
