- Recently released data shows that July was the warmest July on Earth since records began.
- According to NOAA data, it was the 14th consecutive month in which a global heat record was set.
- It was also the hottest month on Earth, as July is usually the warmest month of the year.
- Africa, Asia and Europe had their hottest July in 2024.
- Global ocean temperatures broke a 15-month record in July.
July was the warmest month on record, adding to a year-long series of monthly heat records, just-released data show.
A new hottest month: In a report released Monday, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information calculated that the global average temperature in July was 2.18 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average, just 0.05 degrees warmer than last July 2023, the warmest July to date in their dataset dating back to 1850.
The NOAA also said it was “fairly likely” that July was the warmest single month on Earth in its 175-year database, because July is typically the warmest month on Earth. That’s because the Northern Hemisphere has more land than the Southern Hemisphere, which warms faster, and July is in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere’s summer.
Deviations of the global average air temperature at the Earth’s surface in July from the 1850 average until 2024. The anomalies of 2023 and 2024 are highlighted.
(NOAA/NCEI)
Data from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies also showed that July 2024 was about 0.04 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than July 2023, but noted that “the difference is so small that the two are virtually neck and neck.”
Earlier this month, Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) found in its analysis of data from 1979 that July 2024 will be about 0.07 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than July 2023.
The globally averaged temperature data are synthesized from measurements from weather stations, ships, aircraft and satellites.
The streak: July was the 14th consecutive month in which Earth set a new heat record for that month, according to both NASA and NOAA data, a streak that began in June 2023.
According to NOAA, this beat the previous record of 13 consecutive record-warm months between May 2015 and May 2016.
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Each line in this chart shows the deviation from the global average temperature between 1980 and 2015 in degrees Celsius, color-coded by decade, from 1880 to July 2024. The July 2024 anomaly is highlighted at the top of the chart.
(NASA GIS)
Notable events in July: According to NOAA, Africa, Asia and Europe had the hottest July on record.
Parts of western Canada, the western United States, Antarctica and Greenland also experienced record-breaking July temperatures. California and New Hampshire each had their hottest July in 130 years of NOAA data.
July 22, 2024 was also the hottest day on the planet, according to NASA and C3S analyses.
Our planet’s oceans narrowly missed another monthly record, ending a 15-month streak of record-breaking warmest oceans, according to NOAA and C3S. However, parts of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans were still record-breakingly warm for a July.
Only parts of southern South America and western Alaska were colder. According to NOAA, it was the wettest July on record in Alaska.
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This map shows the global temperature percentiles for July 2024. Areas with record temperatures in any July of 2024 are shown in dark red.
(NOAA/NCEI)
The horse race: Unlike last year, 2024 began with a strong El Niño already established. Although this El Niño is long gone, 2024 is still well above last year’s level through July, just over 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit.
NOAA’s July climate report calculated a 77% probability that 2024 will be the warmest year on record.
Climate scientist Zeke Hausfather estimates that the probability that 2024 will surpass the record heat of 2023 is over 95%.
Year-to-date deviations from the 20th century average (in degrees Celsius) through 2024 (upper black line) compared to the 10 warmest years recorded in the NOAA database.
(NOAA/NCEI)
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Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. His lifelong love of meteorology began with a tornado encounter as a child in Wisconsin. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and then earned a master’s degree in dual-polarization radar and lightning data from Colorado State University. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite subjects. Contact him at X (formerly Twitter), Topics, on facebook. And Blue sky.
