Sea areas around the world in the past month have been hotter than any July ever recorded, scientists said, amid devastating heat waves attacking Western Europe, according to AFP.
The EU Copernicus Climate Change Agency discovered that sea surface temperatures reached a record high for July on the Atlantic coast and the western Mediterranean, with severe sea heat waves stirring up European waters. Globally, the average sea surface temperature outside the extremely cold regions reached the highest ever recorded in this month, surpassing the previous July record set in 2023.
Surface temperatures around the world in July 2026 are slightly cooler than July 2024, only 0.01°C, making scientists consider these two months to be the second hottest July ever recorded.
Data shows that Western Europe experienced the hottest period of July-July ever recorded, with "special" temperatures causing wildfires to devastate large areas of the Mediterranean. Copernicus said on August 10 that the first 2 months of summer 2026 were hotter than normal by 2.79 degrees Celsius, surpassing the previous record set four years ago and reflecting "the special persistence of heat" since summer began.
Central Europe is shaken by a heatwave that has broken national temperature records in some countries, including Austria and Slovakia. This is the latest development in a hot summer that has dried up vegetation and put the continent at risk of fire.
Ms. Samantha Burgess, a climate scientist at the European Center for Weather Forecasting, said this summer is "a clear example" of the climate crisis increasing the intensity of extreme phenomena that reinforce each other.
