A recent report from NOAA states that this July was the hottest month in the hottest year ever—as far as we can tell. Equipment and climatology data can only go back so far, but as NOAA reports, “the combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for July 2015 was the highest for July in the 136-year period of record.”
How hot was it?
“At 1.46°F above the 20th century average of 60.4°F, it surpassed the previous record set in 1998 by 0.14°F,” writes NOAA.
Being that July is the warmest month of the year globally, the monthly global temperature “of 61.86ºF was also the highest among all 1627 months in the record that began in January 1880.” Additionally, the global temperature of July is “increasing at an average rate of 1.17ºF per century,” according to an NCDC report.
This year saw many record-breaking heat waves across Western and Southern Europe. In France, for example, “the country had its third warmest July in its 116-year period of record.”
Austria recorded the hottest July since records even began in 1767.
Not only was July the hottest, but also “the first seven months of 2015 comprised the warmest such period on record across the world’s land and ocean surfaces.”