Normally, the global mean temperature for July is around 16C (61F), inclusive of the Southern Hemisphere winter. But this July it has surged to near 17C (63F). This would be at least 0.2C (0.4F) warmer than July 2019, the former front-runner in the 174-year observational record, according to European Union data. 

An analysis by Germany's Leipzig University released on Thursday found that July 2023 will shatter heat records, with this month's mean global temperature projected to be roughly 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial mean.

The margin of difference between now and July 2019 is "so substantial that we can already say with absolute certainty that it is going to be the warmest July," Leipzig climate scientist Karsten Haustein said.

Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, said it was clear by mid-July that it was going to be a record warm month, and provided an "indicator of a planet that will continue to warm as long as we burn fossil fuels". 

What's more, "we may have to go back thousands if not tens of thousands of years to find similarly warm conditions on our planet," Haustein said. Early, less fine-tuned climate records - gathered from things like ice cores and tree rings - suggest the Earth has not been this hot in 120,000 years.

Normally, the global mean temperature for July is around 16C (61F), inclusive of the Southern Hemisphere winter. But this July it has surged to near 17C (63F). This would be at least 0.2C (0.4F) warmer than July 2019, the former front-runner in the 174-year observational record, according to European Union data. 

An analysis by Germany's Leipzig University released on Thursday found that July 2023 will shatter heat records, with this month's mean global temperature projected to be roughly 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial mean.

The margin of difference between now and July 2019 is "so substantial that we can already say with absolute certainty that it is going to be the warmest July," Leipzig climate scientist Karsten Haustein said.

Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, said it was clear by mid-July that it was going to be a record warm month, and provided an "indicator of a planet that will continue to warm as long as we burn fossil fuels". 

What's more, "we may have to go back thousands if not tens of thousands of years to find similarly warm conditions on our planet," Haustein said. Early, less fine-tuned climate records - gathered from things like ice cores and tree rings - suggest the Earth has not been this hot in 120,000 years.