July is set to be the joint-warmest month on record for the entire world
JULY is set to be the joint-warmest month on record for the world — and may even be the hottest to date, provisional figures indicate.
Figures suggest global average temperatures for the month will be “on a par with and possibly marginally higher” than those seen in July 2016.
That was the previous warmest July — and warmest month overall — on record.
The figures show that last month was around 1.2C (2.16F) above pre-industrial levels.
They are based on data for July 1 to 29 from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
All the months of 2019 so far rank among the four warmest for their time of year, the experts have said. But July saw record breaking heatwaves grip parts of the northern hemisphere.
The UK set a new high, with 101.66F (38.7C) recorded in Cambridge just over a week ago. Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands also saw records broken.
The latest figures come after June 2019 was recorded as the hottest June on record.
Prof Richard Allan, professor of climate science at the University of Reading, called record-breaking temperatures the “expectation rather than a surprise”.
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