July Was World's Hottest Month On Record

Here in Vermont, we had our coolest July since 2009, but that's not particularly cool, just kinda average from a historical perspective.  

However, we here in the Green Mountain State were bystanders to global climate history last month. 

Turns out July was the world's hottest month on record.  It was the hottest at least since the 1880s, when reliable records started. It was probably the hottest month in many centuries. 

July, in fact, might have been the Earth's hottest month in at least 100,000 years, but of course there's no easy way to absolutely prove or disprove that. 

July, 2021 was 1.67 degrees above the historical average for the world as a whole, just barely beating out the Julys of 2016, 2019 and 2020 that were until the hottest months on record. So, yep. July, 2021 was #1 for global heat.

Um yay?

Not really.

"In this case, first place is the worst place to be......July is typically the world's warmest month of the year, but July, 2021 outdid itself as the hottest July and month ever recorded. This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe," said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, in a statement released to the media Friday. 

The hot summary for July came the same week that the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its rather dire, newest  4,000 page report that puts "unequivocal" blame on humans, not natural forcing on the ever rising global temperatures.  

Climate change and worldwide heating contributes to extreme weather, and we certainly saw that in July.  Immense flooding during July hit China and Germany, among other places. Destructive wildfires roared through parts of the western United States, Canada, Siberia, Turkey, Greece and other spots. 

The global July heat focused on land areas, where people live.  Oceans had "only" their sixth hottest July on record, while land areas as a whole were the hottest on record.

In the July report from NOAA, cool spots, relative to average,  were few and far between in July, 2021. The cooler spots were limited a piece of northwestern Siberia, northeastern Canada, southern Africa and the southeastern United States.

Particularly hot spots, and there many, included western and central North America, all but the middle of South America, northern Africa, southern Asia, Oceania, and Europe. No fewer than 22 United States cities mostly in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho, had their hottest month on record

So far this year, seven nations -  Canada, Morocco, Oman, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the United States - have recorded their hottest reliably measured temperature on record. (For United States record was 130 degrees in Furnace Creek, California on July 9).

Unless something incredibly surprising happens, 2021 will join the ranks as one of the top 10 hottest years on record on Planet Earth