Climate Change: July 2015 was the Hottest Month Ever Recored for the World

First Posted: Aug 20, 2015 05:01 PM EDT

It turns out that July was a scorcher. Scientists have announced that this July surpassed global average land and ocean temperatures.

The July temperatures across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.46 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20^th century average. As July is climatologically the warmest month for the year, this means that July was also the all-time highest monthly temperature since recording began. In fact, it surpassed the previous record set in 1998 by .14 degrees Fahrenheit.

With that said, this wasn't the highest monthly temperature ever for land temperatures. It was just the sixth highest for July land temperatures in the 1880 to 2015 record.

With that said, it was still a hot month. The average Arctic sea ice extent for July was 350,000 square miles, which is about 9.5 percent below the 1981 to 2010 average. It was also the eighth smallest July extent since records began in 1979 and the largest since 2009.

The new announcement is just part of a trend of rising temperatures. This year, in particular, has been a scorcher. In fact, June had the highest temperatures for its month in the 136-year period of recorded temperatures. It was actually the fourth month of 2015 to break its monthly temperature record, along with February, March and May. This could actually make 2015 the hottest year on record if the trend continues.

In order to learn more, you can check out the full report on NOAA's website.

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TagsTemperatures, Temperature, Climate Change, Climate, arctic, Climate Models, NOAA, Arctic Sea Ice