July 2024 becomes second hottest month ever ending 13-month record streak

The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service on Thursday marked July 2024 as the second hottest July for the planet on record, breaking a 13-month period when each month was warmest.

Copernicus largely attributed the high temperatures to greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-based industries and noted that, oceans that are not normally impacted by El Nino, saw an unusual rise in temperatures, Reuters reported.

"This El Nino has ended but this magnitude of global temperature rises, the big picture is quite similar to where we were a year ago," Julien Nicolas, a climate researcher with Copernicus, told Reuters.

"We are not done with temperature records causing heatwaves ... We know this long-term warming trend can be with a very high level of confidence related to the human impact on climate," she added.

According to a monthly report on Thursday, Copernicus highlighted that the month was 1.48°C above the pre-industrial reference of 1850-1990, while the last 12 months were 1.64°C above the pre-industrial average due to climate change.

According to sources, southern and eastern Europe, western United States and Canada, most of Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and eastern Europe recorded above average temperatures throughout the month.

Moreover, near or below-average temperatures were seen in northwestern Europe, western Antarctica, parts of the US, South America and Australia.

The seventh-month of 2024 is reported to be wetter than average in Northern Europe and southern Turkey while drought warnings persisted in southern and eastern Europe.

Earlier in 2022 and 2023, Arctic Sea ice was down more than at 7% below average though not as severe as the record 14% drop in 2020.

Global sea temperatures remain at near record highs with this July only 0.1°C below July last year, ending a 15-month consecutive new record streak.