July 2021 is officially the hottest month on Earth ever – SciencePost

July 2021 is the hottest month on record since records began in the late 1800s, according to new data released Friday by NOAA. Unsurprisingly, this year could also be among the hottest.

Were you hot in July? It’s normal. Last month, the combined land and ocean surface temperature was 0.93 degrees Celsius higher than the 20th century average, according to a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Not only was July 2021 the hottest July on record, it was also the hottest month ever since record keeping began 142 years ago.

“This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has charted for the world“, highlighted NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad.

The northern hemisphere was particularly affected last month, according to the new report, with land surface temperatures up to 1.54 ° C above average. In question, several domes of heat (at least five recorded) bringing down stifling temperatures several days in a row. Record temperatures were also recorded in Turkey, Ireland and Japan. The NOAA press release cites an “unprecedented” thermal anomaly.

Climate emergency

According to NOAA, there is no doubt that 2021 will be among the hottest years on record.

The first half of August seems to go in this direction. While the European heat record fell on Wednesday August 11 with 48.8 ° C recorded in Syracuse (Sicily), Spain is currently experiencing temperatures that can locally exceed the bar of 48 ° C. For now, the national record is officially still 47.3 ° C in Montoro, recorded on July 13, 2017.

All these established and future records resonate with the latest IPCC report, published a few days ago, stressing that human influence on global warming is now “unequivocal”. Fires, historic floods, stinging droughts or other punitive heat waves, the violence of all these phenomena are and will be more and more exacerbated as temperatures continue to rise.

According to the authors of this report, some of the changes can still be slowed down or even stopped, provided that we drastically limit our global greenhouse gas emissions. In this sense, some experts point out that an aggressive and immediate campaign aimed at reduce methane emissions in the world could save additional time in the fight against climate change.