Climate agency: July was hottest month recorded
July was the hottest month ever recorded, surpassing July 2016 as the previous record holder, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Programme of the European Union.
According to Copernicus, July 2019 was 0.56 degrees Celsius ( 1.008 degrees Fahrenheit) above the July average from 1981 to 2010, and around 0.04 degrees Celsius ( 0.0072 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than July 2016 — the previous record- holding hottest month.
“The global temperature was substantially above average in July 2019, sufficient for the month to become by a narrow margin the warmest July in this data record,” Copernicus said in a statement.
The results still must be checked against observational records gathered from networks of thousands of temperature measuring sites around the world. Those readings ultimately will be reported by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other agencies in the coming weeks. But the final results are not likely to differ significantly from Copernicus, according to scientists.
Copernicus’ announcement comes amid a wave of other climate- related concerns, including a series of heatwaves in Europe that sparked concern that Notre Dame Cathedral may become damaged as a result of the sweltering heat, and Earth Overshoot Day occurred on July 29 — meaning all the ecological resources that could be generated within the year had been used.
Notably, July’s monthly temperature record comes without the added influence of a strong El Nino event in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Such natural climate events, which typically occur about every five to seven years, add heat to the oceans and atmosphere and help boost planetary temperatures. The 2016 record, for example, occurred during a year with an extremely strong El Nino.
Another report in late July revealed many underwater glaciers are melting faster than previously thought — some at 100 times the predicted rate — and last month, it was announced that June 2019 had the highest global temperature for the month of June that has ever been recorded.
During the hottest month that humans have ever recorded, a local television station in the Netherlands aired nonstop images of wintry landscapes to help viewers momentarily forget the heatwave outside.
Officials in Switzerland and elsewhere painted stretches of rail tracks white, hoping to keep them from buckling in the extreme heat. At the port of Antwerp in Belgium, two alleged drug dealers called the police for help after they got stuck inside a shipping container filled with cocaine and feared they would suffocate in the heat. In Paris, people piled into movie theaters — some of the only air- conditioned places in town.
“We have always lived through hot summers. But this is not the summer of our youth. This is not your grandfather’s summer,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters as July gave way to August.