Global warmest July – hottest month ever recorded on Earth

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Earth is getting warmer. July 2023 beat all heat records. Experts now provide an overview of how our planet is faring.

It’s not just summer. According to data from the EU’s Copernicus Earth Observation Program, July 2023 is officially the hottest month since records began in 1940.

The report states last month’s average global temperature was 16.95 degrees, 0.33 degrees higher than the previous record month – July 2019. According to Copernicus, this year’s July value was also 0.72 degrees higher than the 30-year global average between 1991 and 2020.

“Although Copernicus data only goes back to 1940, it is still possible to reconstruct past climatic conditions on our planet by analyzing proxy data, such as ice cores, tree rings, marine sediments and other sources,” explain the experts from UBIMET and the Austrian Severe Weather Center UWZ.

According to Copernicus Deputy Director Samantha Burgees, it is “very likely” not only the hottest month on record but also the hottest month “in at least 120,000 years.”

July was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth

This month was accompanied worldwide by extreme weather events such as heat waves, drought, heavy rain and storms. Several intense heat waves were observed in different regions of the northern hemisphere.

More than 52°C sweltering heat – it gets worse.

In Death Valley in the U.S., a record-breaking 53.3°C was measured on July 16, 2023, according to the U.S. Weather Service. Death Valley is known for high temperatures because of a world temperature record from 1913. But with one difference, 100 years ago, these extreme temperatures were the absolute exception; with global warming, these extreme temperatures are becoming more frequent and likely.

But southern Europe was also hit by a period of exceptional heat and drought, and as a result, forest and wildfires had an easy time of it in the arid landscape – whether caused by humans or not.

“In general, it can be said that the Mediterranean region is one of the fastest warming areas on Earth in summer,” the UWZ experts said in their analysis.

But thunderstorms can also release great destructive potential in warm and humid air. For example, a particularly large hailstone with a diameter of 19 centimetres was observed in northern Italy during a thunderstorm at the end of July, narrowly missing the current world record of 20.3 centimetres set in South Dakota on July 23, 2010.

“Unimaginable” – record hail with 19 centimetres in diameter.

Again, a correlation between global warming and the frequency of such events can be seen. Accordingly, large hail occurs three times more frequently in northern Italy than in the 1950s.