The global sea-surface temperature in the past month of July was the highest on record, announced today by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) of the European Union.
The mean temperature of the extrapolar oceans, outside ice caps and extreme polar regions, reached last month 20.96°C, beating the previous record of 20.89°C measured in 2023.
One of the reasons cited for this rise was the exceptionally high temperatures across a large portion of the tropical Pacific, a region where the conditions of the meteorological phenomenon known as El Niño are present, which, according to forecasts, will strengthen even further in the coming months.
Around Europe, the temperature records in the Atlantic and in the western Mediterranean were linked to intense marine heatwaves, which also affected ecosystems and coastal communities.
The western part of the continent experienced the warmest June-July on record, at 21.62°C, above the 2022 record and 2.79°C above the average; during this period, heat waves occurred and the drought that had already manifested in May persisted.
Precipitation and soil moisture were exceptionally low for this period in France, Spain, parts of Germany and the United Kingdom.
The bulletin published by the C3S noted that, in the affected regions, river flows fell well below the average or were exceptionally low, which affected water supplies, irrigation and energy production in several countries, with particular repercussion on the Seine, the Rhine and the Danube.
“Persistent high-pressure systems trapped heat over western Europe; extreme temperatures also amplified the widespread droughts. As soils dry out, they lose the ability to provide cooling naturally”, explained Samantha Burgess, of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
“It is a clear example of how climate change is intensifying extreme temperatures, where heat and drought increasingly reinforce each other,” she added.
Globally, last July was the second hottest on record, with an average surface-air temperature of 16.90°C, on par with July last year and behind the record of July 2023, standing 1.47°C above the pre-industrial average of 1850-1900.
“Last month witnessed exceptional forest-fire activity in western Europe, in terms of area burned and emissions,” highlighted Laurence Rouil, director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.
Rouil noted that conditions caused by climate change favor large-scale and high-intensity fires in southern Europe, while at the same time prolonging the fire season northward.
Rouil warned that larger fires produce more smoke, injected at higher altitude into the atmosphere, which allows it to travel farther and affect even countries located thousands of kilometres away that record relatively few fires.
