Scientists Report July was Hottest Month on Recorded Worldwide

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Thursday.July was the hottest month worldwide since records began being kept in 1880.

The temperature in July, when averaged for all locations around the planet, was 61.86 degrees, topping the previous hottest months of July 1998 and July 2010.

July is typically the hottest month of the year.

Much of western and central Europe was extremely hot. Several cities in Austria sweltered to their hottest month ever recorded in the country’s 249-year period of records. Spain had its hottest July on record, while France had its third-warmest July.

Germany and the United Kingdom both broke all-time July heat records.

Bandar Mahshahr, Iran, set one the most extreme heat records ever measured in the world on July 31. According to media reports, the city’s air temperature of 115, combined with a dew point of 90 degrees, created a heat index of 165, NOAA said.

In Africa, July’s average temperature was the second highest, behind July 2002, NOAA said.

The United States was one of the few areas that didn’t see the extreme heat, along with portions of western Asia. The USA did have a slightly warmer-than-average July, but no states set a record high, according to NOAA.

Worldwide, the combined average temperature over land and ocean surfaces for July 2015 was 1.46 degrees above the 20th-century average of 60.4 degrees, NOAA reported.

This meshes with data from NASA and the Japan Meteorological Administration released earlier this week. NASA said temperatures in July 2015 beat the previous record in July 2011 by .036 degrees.

Last month also marked the 39th consecutive July — and 365th consecutive month — with a global temperature that was above average.

NOAA climate scientist Jake Crouch told the Associated Press that 2015 will likely end up the hottest year on record, topping last year.

Crouch said this reaffirms that the Earth is warming, with a boost this year from an El Niño warming of the Pacific Ocean.

“Global temperatures during July and year-to-date both broke previous records,” University of Arizona climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck said in a tweet, noting the combination of a strong El Niño and man-made global warming led to the extreme heat.

Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Susan Heavey