The combined land and ocean surface average temperature for the Northern Hemisphere, the highest ever recorded for July,
Was an unprecedented 2.12 degrees above average. The combined temperature surpassed July 2019 by 0.14 of a degree.
Globally, the July 2020 temperature was 62.06 degrees 1.66 degrees above the 20th-century average. This tied 2016 as the second-hottest July on record. Last month was only 0.02 of a degree shy of tying the record-hot July of 2019.
It was also the hottest July ever recorded in Tampa. The average temperature was an incredible 85.5 degrees. The previous record was 84.9 degrees set in 2016 and 1932. Records in Tampa began in 1890.
Record-hot July temperatures spread across parts of southeastern Asia, northern South America, North America, as well as across the western and northern Pacific Ocean, northern Indian Ocean and parts of the Caribbean Sea.
Northern Hemisphere, July 2020 also saw Arctic sea ice shrink to record lows. The Arctic sea ice coverage for July 2020 was the smallest ever for the month in the 42-year record. It was 23.1% below the 1981–2010 average, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. July’s Arctic sea ice extent was smaller than the previous record set in 2019 by 120,000 square miles, roughly equivalent to the size of Vietnam.
This news was originally published at wtsp.com