Our global temperature continued its upward trend last month with June 2019 marking the warmest June ever recorded on this planet.
According to the State of the Climate report by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Earth’s combined average temperature for the month – over both land and sea surfaces – was 61.61°F. That is a staggering 1.71°F above the 20th-century average and 0.04°F above the previous record that was set in 2016.
June 2019 also marked the 414th consecutive month with a global temperature above its long-term norm. That means the last time any month posted a below-average reading was December 1984. Furthermore, nine of the ten warmest Junes have occurred since 2010. June 1998 is the only year from the last century on the top ten list and currently ranks eighth.
While heat dominated most of the planet this June, some places were particularly warm, including Europe, parts Russia and South America, as well as Alaska. In fact, Europe posted its warmest June on record and Alaska had its second warmest June since statewide record-keeping began there in 1925.
For the contiguous US as a whole, this June was close to average and ranked in the middle third of the national record. To put this disparity into context, consider that the United States constitutes less than 2% of the total surface of the Earth. This detail also highlights the fact that climate change is a complex global phenomenon that involves long-term trends more than the short-term weather conditions that are happening in any one part of the world.
Year to date, the first six months of 2019 tied with the first half of 2017 as the second warmest such period of any year on record. At this point, it is very likely that 2019 will finish among the top five warmest years on record. Global temperature records date back to 1880.