July was the second warmest month on record, according to Copernicus

Berlin- The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the Earth observation arm of the European space program, reported Wednesday that last July was the second-warmest July ever recorded and the second-warmest July globally.

The average surface temperature in July was 16.91°C, just 0.04°C below the July 2023 value, marking a record-breaking period of one year and one month when “every month was the hottest” in ERA5, which collects billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.

Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, stressed that although the “streak of record months has ended”, it was only “barely”.

“Globally, July 2024 will be almost as warm as July 2023, which was the warmest month on record,” Burgess said in a statement.

According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), “July 2024 was not as warm, on average, as July 2023,” but “Earth experienced the two warmest days in the ERA5 data record,” which mentions July 22 and 23 when “global average daily temperatures reached 17.16°C and 17.15°C.”

According to ERA5 data, the average temperature in July last year was 1.48°C above the average temperature in 1850-1900 (the pre-industrial reference period), marking the “end of a series of 12 consecutive months above or at the 1.5°C level.”

Between August 2023 and July this year, the temperature was 0.76°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.64°C above the pre-industrial period.

Second hottest July in Europe

In Europe, July last year was the second-warmest month on record, second only to 2010.

In July this year, the temperature in Europe was also higher than in the period from 1991 to 2020, at 1.49°C.

Outside of Europe, above-average temperatures were also seen in the western United States and Canada, much of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, while below-average temperatures were seen in South America, Australia and parts of the United States.

Oceans warm, polar ice shrinks

On the other hand, the global average sea surface temperature (SST) in July was 20.88°C, “the second highest value for the month”, but 0.01°C lower than the record in July 2023, which “marked the end of the 15-month period with the warmest SST in any month in the ERA5 data record”, the statement said.

July was wetter across much of northern Europe, but in some areas at these latitudes, such as Ireland or Scotland, average weather was drier, while drought was also recorded in the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and the Balkans. The Copernicus Climate Change Service noted that warnings have been recorded.

Outside Europe, precipitation is below normal in western North America, eastern Russia, southern South America, and Africa, while precipitation is above normal in Alaska, central North America, and eastern Asia.

In terms of Arctic ice extent, this is 7% below average compared to 2022 and 2023, while Antarctic ice is 11% below average, the second lowest on record for July since satellite record collection began. JS