July was 6th Hottest on Earth Since Record Keeping Began

July 2013 was the sixth hottest July ever recorded on Earth since record keeping began in 1880, according to a report released Tuesday by the NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.

This July also marked the 37th consecutive July and 341st consecutive month with a globally averaged temperature hotter than the 20th century average.

According to NOAA scientists, the last July where temperatures were below the global average was 1976.

The warmer-than-average July was experienced across the planet, including in the Southern Hemisphere where July is a winter month.

Some regions of the world, including parts of the central and southeastern U.S., northern Canada and parts of Mongolia and Eastern Siberia were cooler in July than average, but on the whole, the world saw a warmer July.

Of the 10 warmest Julys on record, nine have occurred since the beginning of the 21st century. July of 1998 is currently the warmest on record.

A recently leaked draft of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel Climate Change report suggests that scientists are reaching an increasing consensus that human activity is behind warming Earth temperatures since the 1950s.

The following are highlights from the global data posted by the National Climatic Data Center:

• The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for July 2013 was the sixth highest on record, at 0.61°C (1.10°F) above the 20th century average of 15.8°C (60.4°F).
• The global land surface temperature was 0.78°C (1.40°F) above the 20th century average of 14.3°C (57.8°F), marking the eighth warmest July on record. For the ocean, the July global sea surface temperature was 0.54°C (0.97°F) above the 20th century average of 16.4°C (61.5°F), the fifth warmest July on record.
• The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for the January-July period (year-to-date) was 0.59°C (1.06°F) above the 20th century average of 13.8°C (56.9°F), tying with 2003 as the sixth warmest such period on record.