This year is on track to be the warmest on record after the previous high set in 2023, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Two days in July were the hottest days on record in a data set that extends back to 1940. The month was the second-warmest July on record, ending the more than yearlong streak of global monthly temperature records.
July was only 0.04 degrees Celsius lower than the previous high set in July 2023. These temperatures led to heat waves that impacted millions of people in the United States.
Greenhouse gas emissions, largely from burning fossil fuels, continue heating up the planet. Increasing temperatures are tied to more extreme weather events, including heat waves, hurricanes and excessive rainfall.
Sea surface temperatures also marked the second-highest July on record, just 0.01 degrees Celsius below the record set in 2023. Last month ended a 15-month period of the warmest monthly sea surface temperatures.
But record levels in the Caribbean Sea may have contributed to the rapid intensification of Hurricane Beryl last month, according to the report. The storm became the earliest known Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic.
And Debby, now pelting North Carolina, picked up energy from the warm waters it traveled across in the Gulf of Mexico before making its first landfall in Florida on Monday, and again on Wednesday as it meandered offshore in the Atlantic.
La Niña conditions continued to develop over the equatorial Pacific, which could produce an even more active hurricane season.
Above-average surface air temperatures were also caused by a reduction in sea ice, according to the report. In the Arctic, sea ice was 7 percent below average. In the southern hemisphere, Antarctic sea ice was more than 10 percent below average, the second-lowest July on record after 2023.
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