July 2023 was the hottest month in NOAA's 174-year record, exceeding any previous July by more than a third of a degree Fahrenheit, according to a joint report from scientists at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration presented Monday.
Sea surface temperatures were a full 1.78 degrees higher than any other July, marking the fourth consecutive month of record-high global ocean temperatures, NOAA reported. Antarctica, in its winter season, saw its third straight month of record-low sea ice coverage.
"Last month was way, way warmer than anything we've ever seen," Sarah Kapnick, NOAA's chief scientist, said in a Monday press briefing, according to CNBC. Because July is typically Earth's hottest month, she added, it is "very likely that July 2023 was hotter than any month in any year since at least 1850."
The findings follow a similar report last month declaring June 2023 the hottest June on record. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said last month that Earth had reached "global boiling"-level heat.
Long-Term Warming Trend
According to NOAA, last month was the 47th consecutive July — and the 533rd consecutive month overall, as CNBC noted — with temperatures above 20th-century averages. Kapnick said the record is part of a longer pattern: "The really important thing to remember is that July 2023 is just the latest in a long run of extremely warm months and years going back several decades."
The ongoing El Niño weather pattern has intensified global temperatures, but the source material notes that El Niño did not initiate the warming trend. Kapnick said such a year offers "a glimpse at how rising temperatures and heavier rains can impact our society and stress critical infrastructure over the next decade," adding that these years "will be cool by comparison by the middle of the century if we continue to warm our planet as greenhouse gas emissions continue."
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