Climate in Crisis

As climate crisis grows, temperatures set global records. The global land and ocean surface temperature departure from average for July 2019 was the highest for the month of July, making it the warmest month overall in the 140-year according to the US National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA).

The July temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.71°F above the 20th century average of 60.4°F and was the highest for July in the 1880–2019 record. July 2019 bested the previous record–set in 2016–by 0.05°F.

Nine of the 10 warmest Julys have occurred since 2005, with the last five years (2015–2019) being the five warmest Julys on record. July 1998 is the only value from the previous century among the 10 warmest Julys on record.

July 2019 also marks the 43rd consecutive July and the 415th consecutive month with tempera-tures, at least nominally, above the 20th century average.

Climatologically, July is the globe’s warmest month of the year. With July 2019 being the warmest July on record, at least nominally, this resulted in the warmest month on record for the globe.

The July globally averaged land surface temperature was 2.21°F above the 20th century average of 57.8°F and the second-highest July land temperature in the 140-year record. July 2017 holds the record for the highest July global land temperature departure from average at 2.23°F.

The most notable warm temperature departures from average were present across Alaska, central Europe, northern and southwestern parts of Asia, and parts of Africa and Australia, where temperatures were at least 2.7°F above the 1981-2010 average or higher. The most notable cooler-than-average tempera-tures were present across parts of Scandinavia and western and eastern Russia, where temperatures were at least 2.7°F below average or cooler.

The 10 highest global ocean monthly temperature departures from average have all occurred since September 2015.

The July 2019 Antarctic sea ice extent was 260,000 square miles (4.3%) below the 1981-2010 average and was the smallest July extent in the 41-year record. This value is slightly below the previous record set in 2017 (250,000 square mile).

The most notable warm tempera-ture departures from average were present across parts of the Northern Hemisphere, specifically Alaska, western Canada, and central Russia, where temperature departures from average were at least +3.6°F or higher. Meanwhile, the most notable cool temperature departures from average were present across much of the contiguous United States and southern Canada, where tempera-tures were at least 1.8°F below average or cooler.

[contributed]

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Frontier
Vol. 54, No. 12, Sep 19 - 25, 2021