US Atmospheric Administration announces July 2021 as the world's hottest month till date

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), on Friday, announced that July was the hottest month ever recorded globally.

NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said that the new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe. The US-based agency stressed that July is typically the world’s warmest month of the year, but July 2021 outdid itself as the hottest July and month ever recorded. July 2021 marked the 45th consecutive July and the 439th consecutive month with temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th-century average.

Here is the official announcement: 

Hottest July since records began 142 years ago

According to the latest findings, around the globe, the combined land and ocean surface temperature was 1.67 degrees F above the 20th-century average of 60.4 degrees F, making it the hottest July since records began 142 years ago. It was 0.02 degrees F higher than the previous record set in July 2016, which was then tied in 2019 and 2020. In the Northern Hemisphere, the land-surface temperature was the highest ever recorded for July, at an unprecedented 2.77 degrees F above average, surpassing the previous record set in 2012.

Climate change and its impacts are widespread and rapidly intensifying

Regionally, Asia had its warmest July on record, besting the previous record set in 2010. Europe had its second-warmest July (tied with 2010) on record, trailing behind the record warm July set in 2018. Meanwhile, North America, South America, Africa and Oceania had a top-10 warm July on record.

"Today, scientists from across the globe delivered the most up-to-date assessment of the ways in which the climate is changing. It is a sobering IPCC report that finds that human influence is, unequivocally, causing climate change, and it confirms the impacts are widespread and rapidly intensifying," Spinrad said.

What happened to the Icy region

According to an analysis by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) using data from NOAA and NASA, July 2021 Arctic sea ice extent was 687,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average and was the fourth-smallest July sea ice extent in the 43-year record. The Antarctic sea ice extent during July 2021 was above average. The July Antarctic sea ice extent was 6.32 million square miles, the largest July sea ice extent since 2015 and the eighth highest in the 43-year record. 

(With inputs from NOAA statement, Image: ANI)