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Last month set a record as the hottest July in the past 175 years, according to experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), who made the announcement on Thursday. This period marks a staggering 14 months of consecutive record-breaking global temperatures, reported Karin Gleason, who heads the monitoring section at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
Although NOAA’s results varied slightly from those of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, which listed July 2024 as the second hottest on record after July 2023, the differences were minimal. “NOAA’s data established this July as the warmest by a margin of three hundredths of a degree Celsius,” Gleason explained, indicating that the figures were almost identical to those of the previous year.
Significant temperature rises were noted in regions across the western and eastern U.S., with New Hampshire and California experiencing much higher temperatures than average, according to NOAA.
Current predictions suggest that 2024 is on track to make climate history, with NOAA statistical analysis giving a 77% probability that it will be the warmest year on record and an almost certain chance it will rank among the top five warmest years.
Amid these temperature spikes, the U.S. has also seen worsening drought conditions, particularly in areas such as the Ohio Valley, the central and southern plains, the Pacific Northwest, the Northern Rockies, and the Hawaiian Islands. Notably, the percentage of the U.S. experiencing drought conditions has burgeoned from 3.5% in early July to about 22%, NOAA data shows.
The arid conditions and lack of significant rainfall, especially in the western U.S., have contributed to severe droughts, noted Andy Hoell, a research meteorologist at the NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. These conditions have also helped to fuel more severe wildfires. Over 80 significant wildfires, each engulfing 100 acres or more, are currently active, predominantly in the Western U.S.
California recently witnessed the Park Fire exploding in size to over 429,000 acres since its start on July 24, exacerbated by consecutive days of temperatures topping 100 degrees, which significantly aided the fire’s spread, Hoell highlighted.
Furthermore, NOAA has documented 19 separate billion-dollar disasters in the first seven months of this year alone, including the destructive South Fork Fire in Ruidoso, New Mexico, which destroyed over 1,000 structures.
Looking ahead, NOAA forecasters predict a 66% chance that the weather phenomenon La Niña will emerge this fall and might persist through the winter. This follows the ending of El Niño, characterized by warmer tropical Pacific ocean temperatures, in June. La Niña typically brings cooler temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean and could lead to drier conditions across Southern California and the Southwest, according to NOAA Climate Prediction Center meteorologist Brad Pugh.
In the Atlantic, the presence of La Niña generally weakens winds, which tends to heighten hurricane activity. With warm surface temperatures already recorded in the Tropical Atlantic, notable hurricanes are anticipated in the coming weeks.
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has already seen Hurricane Beryl achieving Category 5 status earlier than any other hurricane, and forecasters are now monitoring Hurricane Ernesto as it approaches Bermuda, following its impact on Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.