July 2023 is set to become the hottest month ever recorded on the planet, after the first three weeks have surpassed any previous period of the warmest months to date. This was announced on Thursday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) of the European Union and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Specifically, July 6th has been the hottest day ever recorded in history. Furthermore, July has already accumulated 23 of the hottest days ever recorded worldwide, according to the latest data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service of the European Space Agency.
In fact, the provisional average temperature for the first 25 days of this month is 16.95 degrees Celsius, well above the 16.63 °C recorded for the entire month of July in 2019, which previously held the record. Additionally, some experts believe that July could very well be the hottest month in the last 120,000 years.
Last month was the hottest June ever recorded, but in this case, July has the highest temperatures ever observed. So, not only will it be the hottest July, but also the hottest month in history.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization link these high temperatures to recent heatwaves in much of North America, Asia, and Europe, emphasizing that they "ultimately" lead to wildfires like those in Canada and many others in the Mediterranean area, such as Italy, Greece, and Algeria.
"Anthropogenic emissions (human-generated) are the ultimate cause of these temperature increases," highlighted Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, and he foresees new record figures for the coming months of 2023.
Acting to prevent global warming "is not a luxury but a necessity," added the Secretary-General of the WMO, while Chris Hewitt, the director of the agency for Climate Services, pointed out in a press conference that at the current rate, it is likely that 2023 will be the hottest year in history, surpassing the records of 2016.