In a groundbreaking announcement, the European climate monitoring organization declared that July 2023 has officially become Earth’s hottest month on record. With an average global temperature of 16.95 degrees Celsius (62.51 degrees Fahrenheit), July surpassed the previous record set in 2019 by a remarkable margin of one-third of a degree Celsius (six tenths of a degree Fahrenheit). This substantial increase is unprecedented, as temperature records are typically broken by much smaller increments.
Meanwhile, the United States has experienced a record-breaking 15 weather disasters this year, each causing at least $1 billion in damages, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This marks the highest number of mega-disasters in the first seven months of a year since 1980. Copernicus deputy director Samantha Burgess emphasizes the dire consequences of these records, which include more frequent and intense extreme events such as deadly heat waves.
July’s scorching temperatures shattered previous records, with each day surpassing the previous single-day heat record set in 2016 and tied in 2022. Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization even predicted that July would likely be the hottest month well before its conclusion. Subsequent calculations affirmed this prediction, cementing July 2023 as Earth’s hottest month on record.
Renowned climate scientist Friederike Otto from Imperial College of London underscores the significance of July’s record-breaking temperatures, not because it is just another record, but rather because it signifies the profound extent to which we have altered the climate. Otto states that we are now living in a world that our societies are ill-equipped to handle due to these changes.
Last month’s global average temperature surpassed pre-industrial levels by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). The nations of the world pledged in 2015 to prevent long-term warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius in an effort to combat climate change.
Notably, July 2023 was 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.3 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than the average July temperatures from 1991 to 2020, according to Copernicus. The world’s oceans were also half a degree Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the previous 30 years, while the North Atlantic experienced temperatures 1.05 degrees Celsius (1.9 degrees Fahrenheit) above average. Additionally, Antarctica witnessed a significant decrease in sea ice, with levels dropping 15% below the average for this time of year.
