It’s Getting Hot In Here: July 2021 was Earth’s Warmest Month in Recorded History

July 2021 was Earth’s hottest July since global record-keeping began in 1880, 0.93 degrees Celsius (1.67°F) above the 20th-century average, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) reported. Since July is also the hottest month of the seasonal cycle, that meant that July 2021 was “more likely than not the warmest month on record for the globe since 1880,” NOAA said. July 2021 was just 0.01 degree Celsius hotter than July of 2016, 2019, and 2020, so these months can be considered to be in a statistical tie for Earth’s hottest month on record.

The record July warmth was particularly remarkable since there was a moderate La Niña event in the Eastern Pacific that ended in May 2021. La Niña events typically cause global cooling of about 0.1 degree Celsius; the peak cooling occurs five months after the La Niña peak, on average. July 2021 temperatures would have been even warmer had a La Niña event not occurred earlier in the year.

During the month, Death Valley National Park’s Furnace Creek Visitor Center in California (U.S.) hit an astonishing 130.0 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4°C) on July 9, beating the previous all-time world record for hottest reliably measured temperature of 129.9 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4°C), set at the same location on August 16, 2020. The official world record remains 134 degrees Fahrenheit at Furnace Creek in 1913, but this record has been strongly disputed as invalid.

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