New York, August 16 (RHC)-- Earth sizzled in July and became the hottest month in 142 years of record keeping, United States weather officials have announced.   As extreme heatwaves struck parts of the United States and Europe, the globe averaged 16.73 degrees Celsius (62.07 degrees Fahrenheit) last month, beating out the previous record set in July 2016 and tied again in 2019 and 2020, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Friday.

The last seven Julys, from 2015 to 2021, have been the hottest seven Julys on record, said NOAA Climatologist Ahira Sanchez-Lugo.  Last month was 0.93C (1.67F) warmer than the 20th-century average for the month.

“In this case, first place is the worst place to be,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a press release. “This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.”

Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann said: "This is climate change."  “It is an exclamation mark on a summer of unprecedented heat, drought, wildfires and flooding,” said Mann.

Earlier this week, a prestigious United Nations science panel warned of worsening climate change caused by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas and other human activity.  Warming on land in western North America and parts of Europe and Asia really drove the record-setting heat, Sanchez-Lugo said. While the worldwide temperature was barely higher than the record, what shattered it was land temperature over the Northern Hemisphere, she added.

Northern Hemisphere temperatures were a third of a degree (.19 degrees Celsius) higher than the previous record set in July 2012, which for temperature records is “a wide margin”, Sanchez-Lugo said.

July is the hottest month of the year for the globe, so this is also the hottest month on record.