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July on track to be hottest month ever after record-breaking June

June 2019 was the warmest month ever recorded on Earth, according to Europe’s Copernicus satellite monitoring system and confirmed by data released Monday by NASA.

Nasa’s data coincides with data released earlier by the Copernicus system that showed the global average land-ocean temperatures were 0.93°C above the normal temperature (taking 1951 to 1980 as base years). Such high temperatures have never been observed on Earth in recorded history since 1880.

The world saw unusually mild conditions in the Arctic, with ice-melt in Greenland getting an earlier than normal start, devastating droughts in Chennai and Harare and forest fires that forced thousands of holidaymakers to abandon campsites in southern France.

Last month was the hottest June ever recorded with soaring temperatures worldwide capped off by a re...

Last month was the hottest June ever recorded with soaring temperatures worldwide capped off by a record-breaking heatwave across Western Europe
PHILIPPE HUGUEN, AFP


July already set to end up hotter than June
Based on the temperatures already recorded for the first half of the month, July is on track to beat the July 2018 record by about 0.025 degrees Celsius, according to calculations by Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist at the University of Oxford, and others, reports The Guardian.

“If this July turns out to be the warmest July (it has a good shot at it), it will be the warmest month we have measured on Earth!” tweeted Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University.


The National Post is reporting that according to David Phillips, Environment Canada’s senior climatologist, Canada won’t be contributing a whole lot to July’s possible heat record.

“Even though we’re the second-largest country in the world and a huge landmass, we don’t necessarily dictate how the world will be,” Phillips said. “It can be colder in Canada and still have the warmest month on record globally.”

However, climate scientists stress that conditions could change in the second half of the month, and that is a reasonable assumption. But it underscores a broader pattern of steadily rising temperatures caused by humans – with increasing emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants, deforestation, cars, planes, and other sources.

The world's leading authority on climate change has said that in order to stay within a safer c...

The world's leading authority on climate change has said that in order to stay within a safer cap of 1.5C of warming, drastic cuts in fossil fuel use would be needed within just a few years
INA FASSBENDER, AFP/File


Michael Mann estimated the record being broken in July at about 50 percent. But as he points out, the records, whenever they are set, will continue to be broken.

“We have shown in recent work that the record warm streaks we’ve seen in recent years cannot be explained without accounting for human-caused planetary warming. Those warm streaks are certain to not only continue but to worsen if we continue to burn fossil fuels and warm the planet.”

Gavin Schmidt, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), says that data from the first half of this year suggests there is a 99.9 percent chance of 2019 entering the top five years for heat.

“It is clear that 2019 is shaping up to be a top-five year – but depending on what happens it could be second, third or fourth warmest. The warmest year was 2016, which started with a big El Niño, which we didn’t have this year, so a record year is not particularly likely,” he said.

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We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend Karen Graham, who served as Editor-at-Large at Digital Journal. She was 78 years old. Karen's view of what is happening in our world was colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in humankind's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.

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