Nearly 900m people experience record heat in July

Nearly 900 million people across 33 countries experienced record-breaking temperatures in July, with extreme heat affecting parts of Africa’s Sahel region, Central America and European countries including France and Spain, according to an analysis of data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

The findings, reported by AFP on Monday, also showed dangerously low soil moisture levels across parts of western Europe, raising concerns over worsening drought conditions and the heightened risk of wildfires.

France and Spain were among the countries hit particularly hard by the extreme weather. At the end of July, devastating wildfires in France’s Gironde region spread across an area of about 42,000 hectares, forcing more than 200,000 people to evacuate.

At around the same time, wildfires in Spain’s Avila province, near Madrid, destroyed forests and other facilities across roughly 44,000 hectares.

July was jointly the second-hottest month ever recorded globally, underscoring the continued acceleration of climate change. Europe, meanwhile, is warming faster than any other continent, according to Copernicus.

The first two months of the European summer brought repeated heatwaves and exceptionally dry conditions across the continent, increasing pressure on forests, agriculture and water resources.

Copernicus data showed that the global average surface air temperature in July was 1.47 degrees Celsius above the estimated pre-industrial average for 1850-1900.

Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said the world had experienced record-breaking heat for 11 consecutive years.

“We have never experienced such warm weather in our lifetimes, and very likely not in the history of civilisation,” Buontempo said, attributing the warming primarily to greenhouse gas emissions.

Oceans absorb most of the excess heat generated by human carbon emissions, making them a crucial component of the global climate system. But increasingly warm seas can have serious consequences, including stronger storms, heavier rainfall and widespread coral bleaching.

The Copernicus service bases its climate assessments on billions of observations collected from satellites, weather stations, ships, aircraft and other sources over both land and oceans.

Its climate dataset extends back to 1940, allowing scientists to compare current conditions with long-term historical records and track the accelerating changes in the global climate.