New york:  Now that all of last month's scorching data is in, the European climate monitoring group has declared that July 2023 was by far the hottest month on record for Earth.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service reported Tuesday that the global average temperature for July was 16.95 degrees Celsius (62.51 degrees Fahrenheit), which was 0.3 degrees Celsius (six tenths of a degree Fahrenheit) higher than the previous record set in 2019. This margin is unusual because global temperature records typically are broken by hundredths or tenths of a degree.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Tuesday that there have now been a record 15 weather-related disasters in the United States this year that have cost at least $1 billion in damages. With figures adjusted for inflation, it's the highest number of mega-disasters through the first seven months of the year since the agency began keeping track of such things in 1980.

Also Read: Niger Junta: The 'best way forward' in Niger is diplomacy, but force is still an option

"These records have dire consequences for both people and the planet exposed to ever-more-frequent and intense extreme events," said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus. Deathly heat waves have been experienced in Mexico, the Southwest United States, Europe, and Asia. The burning of coal, oil, and natural gas has been linked to climate change that is caused by humans.

The prior record for a single day's heat was established in 2016 and tied in 2022. Since July 3, every day has surpassed that mark. Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organisation made the unusual declaration that it was probably the hottest month days before it ended due to the extreme warmth. The calculations on Tuesday made it official.

Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London, said: "We shouldn't care about July because it's a record; we should care about it because it won't be a record for long. "It serves as a gauge for how much the climate has changed. Our societies are not well adapted to live in the world we are currently inhabiting.

In comparison to pre-industrial times, the average global temperature last month was 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) higher. The world's nations came to an agreement in 2015 to work towards preventing long-term warming that is 1.5 degrees warmer than pre-industrial times, rather than just a few months or even years.

Also Read: UK announces agreement with Turkey to stop flow of unauthorised immigrants

According to Copernicus, last month was so hot that it was.7 degrees Celsius (1.3 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than the typical July from 1991 to 2020. The North Atlantic was 1.05 degrees Celsius (1.9 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than usual, and the oceans overall were 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the previous 30 years. Sea ice levels in Antarctica reached record lows and are 15% below normal for this time of year.

Records for the European Union's space program's Copernicus division date all the way back to 1940. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's records go back to 1850, and July would be the hottest month on record. However, according to scientists, it hasn't been this hot in a very long time.
Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research in Germany, said, "It's a stunning record and makes it quite clearly the warmest month on Earth in 10,000 years." He didn't work with the Copernicus group.

Rahmstorf cited research using tree rings and other proxies that showed the current epoch is the warmest since the Holocene Epoch began, roughly 10,000 years ago. And since there was an ice age before the Holocene, it would be reasonable to conclude that this is the warmest record in 120,000 years, he said.

Also Read: Berlin Extends Poland's Patriot Air Defense Shield

While much of the world experienced extreme heat in July, the United States only experienced its 11th warmest July in its 129-year record. However, July was the warmest July on record for Arizona, Florida, Maine, and New Mexico.

According to NOAA, Arizona broke its previous record by almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius), and Phoenix's monthly average of 102.8 degrees made it the hottest city in the country. On July 17, Death Valley recorded its warmest ever midnight temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 degrees Celsius).