According to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, July 2023 was hotter than any other month in the global temperature record. July 2023 was 0.43 degrees Fahrenheit (F) (0.24 degrees Celsius (C)) warmer than any other July in NASA’s record, and it was 2.1 F (1.18 C) warmer than the average July between 1951 and 1980.
NASA assembles its temperature record from surface air temperature data from tens of thousands of metrological stations, as well as sea surface temperature data acquired by ship- and buoy-based instruments.
“Climate change is impacting people and ecosystems around the world, and we expect many of these impacts to escalate with continued warming,” said Katherine Calvin, chief scientist and senior climate advisor at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Copernicus Climate Change Service, a division of the European Union’s space program, holds records dating back to 1940.
According to Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, these records have dire consequences for both people and the planet exposed to ever more frequent and intense extreme events. There have been deadly heat waves in the Southwestern United States and Mexico, Europe and Asia, as well as recent devastating wildfires in Hawaii.
(Information adapted from NASA’s official press release)
