July expected to be the world’s hottest month on record

Millions of people have been under extreme heat warnings over the last few weeks and scientists believe that July could be the hottest month on record.

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On Thursday, the World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said that July has broken many heat-related records, according to The Associated Press. Scientists also believe that this is the hottest weather that human civilization has ever dealt with.

July 2023 is believed to be about 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial mean, according to Reuters. The U.N. World Meteorological Organization confirmed that the first three weeks of the month have been the warmest ever recorded.

“We don’t have to wait for the end of the month to know this. Short of a mini-Ice Age over the next days, July 2023 will shatter records across the board,” U.N. Secretary-general António Guterres said in New York, according to Reuters. “Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning.”

The temperatures for the first 23 days of July have averaged 62.51 Fahrenheit. The previous record was 61.93 Fahrenheit set in July of 2019, according to a report from the Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization, according to CNN.

The data tracked records dating back to 1940, CNN reported. Data shows that the temperatures that have been seen this month so far are the hottest seen in 120,000 years.

“These are the hottest temperatures in human history,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director at Copernicus, according to CNN. Last month, June was recorded as the hottest June on record, according to Copernicus.

North America, Europe, and Asia have been the three continents that have been facing the record-breaking heat, the AP reported.

“Unless an ice age were to appear all of sudden out of nothing, it is basically virtually certain we will break the record for the warmest July on record and the warmest month on record,” Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo told the AP.