Earth just endured its hottest June, breaking the previous record for the month by one-fourth of a degree Fahrenheit (0.13 degrees Celsius).
June’s global average was 61.79 degrees Fahrenheit or 16.55 degrees Celsius, which is 1.89 egrees Fahrenheit or 1.05 degrees Celsius hotter than the average for the 20th century.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) this June was the first time ever that a summer month’s average was more than one degree Celsius hotter than normal.
Europe’s Copernicus, whose records go back to the year 1850, also recorded this June as the hottest on record.
And already this July, the planet hit global heat records four days in a row.
Pointing to a combination of climate change and El Niño—a weakening of trade winds that causes northern U.S. and Canada to be dryer and warmer than usual—climate scientists have warned that heat records are likely to be repeatedly broken over the next several months.
According to NOAA there’s a 20% chance that 2023 will be the hottest year on record, with next year likely to be even hotter.
NOAA also noted that global and Antarctic sea ice levels were at record lows in June.
“Until we stop burning fossil fuels, this will only get worse,” Climate scientist Friederike Otto of the Imperial College of London told the Associated Press.
Heat is the deadliest natural disaster known to humans, killing more every year than other extreme weather events, including flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes or lightning.
Between June 15 and July 3, 10 people died in the city of Laredo, Texas amid triple-digit temperatures—a toll unheard of in that sector of the southwestern state.
