THIS YEAR looks set to become the hottest year on record worldwide, following confirmation that global average temperatures for the first seven months of 2010 were the warmest since records began in 1880.
According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which gathers meteorological data worldwide, last month was the second warmest July on record (after 1998) with an average temperature of 16.5 degrees over land and oceans.
In terms of land surface temperatures alone, NOAA said the July average worldwide land surface temperature was 1.03 degrees above the 20th-century average of 14.3 degrees, making the warmest July on record – particularly in continental Europe, western Russia and eastern Asia.
Finland set a new all-time maximum temperature on July 29th when it soared to 37.2 degrees, while western Russia was engulfed by a severe heatwave during much of last month – with a new all-time high of 39 degrees recorded in unusually sweltering Moscow on July 30th.
All-time record temperatures were also recorded in Belarus, Ukraine and Cyprus. But heatwaves were not confined to Europe, as records were also broken in Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Chad, Sudan, Niger, Burma, Colombia and the Solomon Islands.
According to the Beijing Climate Centre, the July average temperature across China was 22.8 degrees, making it the warmest July there since 1961. Eastern China has also been hit by devastating floods and landslides.
Met Éireann has reported that last month had rainfall “much in excess of normal” over most parts of the country. Claremorris, Co Mayo, had its wettest July since 1950, with a record fall of 56mm for a single day on July 10th.
Mean monthly temperatures were “near normal” in the south, but about half a degree higher than normal at most stations. But sunshine totals were below normal everywhere, with Valentia Observatory reporting only 85 hours – the lowest of any month so far this year.
Meanwhile, Arctic summer sea ice continues to decline for the 14th year in succession and covered an average of 8.4 million sq km during July – nearly 17 per cent below the 1979-2000 average and the second lowest July extent since records began in 1979, NOAA said.
It had already reported last month that June was the 304th consecutive month with a global surface temperature above the 20th-century average. The most recent decline below that average was in February 1985, more than a quarter of a century ago.
Last December, Britain’s Met Office predicted global average surface temperatures could reach a record high in 2010 due to climate change and moderate warming of equatorial areas of the Pacific Ocean – the periodic “El Niño effect”.