Earth just had the hottest month since humans have kept track

by Shivendra Singh · August 13, 2021

Locals use water hoses to extinguish burning trees in Mugla on August 3, 2021. Turkey’s struggles against its deadliest wildfires in decades came as a blistering heatwave gripped southeastern Europe in July and August, creating tinderbox conditions that Greek officials blame squarely on climate change. | Photo by YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images

July 2021 was officially the hottest month humans have ever recorded. This July narrowly beat out three previous months in 2016, 2019, and 2020 that had tied for the previous title. The fact that all of this has happened so recently just screams climate change.

“In this case, first place is the worst place to be,” Rick Spinrad, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said in a statement. NOAA confirmed the new temperature record today, which Spinrad said, “adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.”