July Crushed the Record, and It Wasn’t Even a Contest

Recent scientific data has confirmed that last month, July, was the hottest July ever recorded on Earth. According to NBC News, Sarah Kapnick, the chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), described last month as “way, way warmer than anything we’ve ever seen,” adding that it is highly likely that July 2023 was the hottest month since at least 1850. This new record surpassed the previous one set in 2019 by more than one-third of a degree Fahrenheit, a significant difference.

Russell Vose, from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, mentioned to NPR that most temperature records are set by only a few hundredths of a degree, but this increase is the largest observed so far. The scientists from NOAA and NASA presented their findings, revealing that the average global surface temperature in July was 2.02 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the 20th century average. Additionally, ocean temperatures reached a record high, with NOAA reporting a sea surface temperature anomaly of 1.78 degrees Fahrenheit last month.

Experts attribute this record-breaking heat to human-driven global warming, which is amplified by the El Niño climate pattern. El Niño contributes to high ocean surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean and has a global impact on weather. According to Kapnick, this year provides a glimpse into the potential challenges our critical infrastructure may face due to heavy rain and rising temperatures in the coming decade. She emphasizes that these extreme conditions will seem relatively cool compared to what we could experience by the middle of the century if greenhouse gas emissions continue to warm the planet. (Read more about extreme heat here.)