Worldwide temperature record: warmest July since 1880

Global weather data from the US climate agency NOAA goes back more than 140 years. That year, the researchers observed an exceptionally warm July. This was mainly due to the heat in Asia and Europe.

July is usually the warmest month of the year in the world. But it has never been as warm as this year since 1880. The average temperature over land and ocean areas was 0.93 degrees above the 20th century average of 15.8 degrees, said the US climate agency NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

So far, according to the NOAA survey, 2016, 2019 and 2020 were considered to be the years with the highest average temperatures in July. The value measured this year is 0.01 degrees higher. “This new record is in addition to the disturbing and corrosive path that climate change is preparing for the earth,” said NOAA CEO Rick Spinrad.

Based on the data available so far, American climate researchers assume that 2021 will be one of the ten hottest years since records began.

Second warmest July in Europe

According to NOAA, it was particularly warm in Asia. In Europe it was the second warmest July ever recorded. This was announced a few days ago by the European climate change service Copernicus. It was warmer in a European July only in 2010, when, among other things, a violent heat wave had ruled over western Russia.

This year there was a heat wave between the Baltic States and the eastern Mediterranean, especially towards the end of the month the heat conditions in the southeast of the continent were difficult. The temperatures in the east of Iceland and Greenland were also well above average. In contrast, the month in a strip between Portugal and Germany was a little cooler than the average for the comparable years 1991 to 2020.

The EU’s climate change service produces monthly reports on air temperature, sea ice and the water cycle. It is based on measurement data from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world as well as model calculations.

According to the first part of the current status report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published last week, the earth is warming faster than previously assumed and will be 1.5 degrees warmer by 2030 than in the pre-industrial age.