European scientists make it official. July was the hottest month on record by far

Now that last month's sizzling numbers are all in, the European climate monitoring organization made it official: July 2023 was Earth's hottest month on record by a wide margin.

Now that last month's sizzling numbers are all in, the European climate monitoring organization made it official: July 2023 was Earth's hottest month on record by a wide margin.

July's global average temperature of 16.95 degrees Celsius (62.51 degrees Fahrenheit) was a third of a degree Celsius (six-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit) higher than the previous record set in 2019, Copernicus Climate Change Service announced Tuesday. Normally global temperature records are broken by hundredths or a tenth of a degree, so this margin is unusual.

The United States is now at a record 15 different weather disasters that caused at least US$1 billion in damage this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Tuesday. It's the most mega-disasters through the first seven months of the year since the agency tracked such things starting in 1980, with the agency adjusting figures for inflation.

"These records have dire consequences for both people and the planet exposed to ever more frequent and intense extreme events," said Copernicus deputy director Samantha Burgess. There have been deadly heat waves in the Southwestern United States and Mexico, Europe and Asia. Scientific quick studies put the blame on human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

The previous single-day heat record was set in 2016 and tied in 2022. From July 3, each day has exceeded that record. It's been so warm that Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization made the unusual announcement that it was likely the hottest month days before it ended. Tuesday's calculations made it official.

"We should not care about July because it's a record, but because it won't be a record for long," said Imperial College of London climate scientist Friederike Otto. "It's an indicator of how much we have changed the climate. We are living in a very different world, one that our societies are not adapted to live in very well."

The global average temperature last month was 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times. In 2015, the nations of the world agreed to try to prevent long-term warming -- not individual months or even years, but decades -- that is 1.5 degrees warmer than pre-industrial times.