Continuing the record-breaking trend of earlier months this year, July 2016 has now been confirmed as the hottest July on record globally, going by new data released by NASA.
The record-breaking month follows a streak of record-breaking months going all the way back to October 2015 (using NASA’s data), and keeps the world on track for 2016 being the hottest year globally on record … just as a number of other years this past decade have been, including 2015 (despite the media’s absurd reluctance to talk climate).
Using NOAA’s data rather than NASA’s, the record-breaking streak goes all the way back to May 2015 — instead of “just” October 2015.
Climate Central provides more:
By NASA’s reckoning, July 2016 was 1.27˚F (0.84˚C) hotter than the 1951-1980 average. It was 0.2˚F (0.11˚C) above July 2015, the next warmest July in records that go back to 1880. The record July heat also means this was the hottest month the planet has seen over the course of NASA’s records. That’s because July is also generally the hottest month of the year due the fact that it’s summer in the northern hemisphere where there’s more land.
July 2016 was absolutely the hottest month since the instrumental records began. pic.twitter.com/GQNsvARPDH
— Gavin Schmidt (@ClimateOfGavin) August 15, 2016
Schmidt said he expects July will be the last record hot month of this year as the residual heat from an exceptionally strong El Niño dies away. Though El Niño itself was declared over in June, global temperatures tend to lag by about two to three months.
Here are a few further notes to provide some context to this news:
- While much political discussion has taken place in recent years calling on nations to reduce greenhouse emissions enough to limit the rise of global temperatures to under 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) by 2100, as compared to preindustrial times, or even to under 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit), the reality is that year-to-date temperatures for 2016 have been hovering at nearly 1.5° Celsius over global preindustrial temperatures. … In other words, that boat has sailed.
- While 2016, 2015, and 2014, were all record-breaking years as far as global temperatures, this streak was partly the result of the incipient El Niño, which is now coming to an end. With the impending likely formation of a La Niña, this record-breaking streak is likely to cease for a few years … until the next El Niño, which will occur after further greenhouse gas emissions and resulting global warming.
- 14 of the 15 hottest years on record occurred in the 21st Century. The last time there was a record-breaking year for cold global temperatures was all the way back in 1911.
Top images by Climate Central & NASA, respectively.
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