We are living through Earth's hottest month on record, scientists say
July 22 2023

It's not just a record-hot day or two, unprecedented heat waves or abnormally warm ocean waters: All indications are that this will be the hottest single month on Earth on record, and possibly in more than 100,000 years.

Every day this month has set records for average global annual temperatures, and already, 17 days in July have been hotter than any others in more than 40 years of global observations, climate scientists said.

Not even three weeks into the month, scientists' declarations of an already assured monthly global record serve to punctuate what has been an onslaught of recent weather extremes.

Record heat has been observed from Arizona to Rome to China. An unprecedented wildfire season continues in Canada.

While it is too soon for official records, all preliminary data points to this month being a watershed for the globe.

Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth and the tech company Stripe: "Given the extreme global temperatures over the first half of July, it is virtually certain that July will set a record both as the warmest July and as the warmest month in absolute terms since global temperature records began in the mid-1800s"

Temperatures reached a record 42.8C in Rome and a record 52.2C in China in recent days, while Arizona is enduring an unprecedented streak with nighttime temperatures in the 30s and daytime highs above 43C.

The last time such extremes may have been possible is thought to be about 6500 years ago, during a period which, apart from the present, was Earth's warmest in about 125,000 years.