July Was The Hottest Month In Recorded Human History

A man stands by fans spraying air mixed with water vapor deployed by donors to cool down pedestrians along a street in Iraq's capital Baghdad on June 30 amid a severe heat wave.

By Joe Hernandez

August 13, 2021

Updated August 14, 2021

There was nothing cool about it.

July was the hottest month ever recorded in human history, according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"In this case, first place is the worst place to be," said NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad in a statement. "July is typically the world's warmest month of the year, but July 2021 outdid itself as the hottest July and month ever recorded."

Spinrad said climate change has set the world on a "disturbing and disruptive path" and that this record was the latest step in that direction. Research has shown that the warming climate is making heat waves, droughts and floods more frequent and intense.

The Pacific Northwest is currently enduring its second heat wave of the summer, with temperatures expected to top 100 as wildfires continue to burn in Oregon and nearby California.

According to NOAA, this was the hottest July in 142 years of record-keeping.

The global combined land and ocean-surface temperature last month was 1.67 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the 20th-century average of 60.4 degrees, the agency said. The previous record was set in 2016, and repeated in 2019 and 2020.

In the Northern Hemisphere, July was 2.77 degrees hotter than average.

It was Asia's hottest July on record and the second-most-sweltering July for Europe, according to NOAA. It ranked among the top 10 warmest July's for North America, South America, Africa and Oceania.

The news came days after 200 climate scientists released a landmark report, which found that climate change will exacerbate extreme weather in the coming years while noting that cutting greenhouse gas emissions could prevent the worst outcome.