Jul 3, 2019 - Energy & Environment

June sets temperature records around the globe

A boy standing in a fountain to keep cool.

Photo: Getty/Paul Mansfield Photography

June was by far the warmest on record in Europe and, by a smaller amount, beat the global record for the month, per a new analysis from Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service.

By the numbers: Copernicus said the late June European heat wave, caused by an air mass that originated over the Sahara Desert, "led to the month as a whole being around 1°C above the previous record for June, set in 1999."

  • Copernicus, which provides data to the European Union, also reports that June's global average temperature was 0.1°C higher than June of 2016.

Why it matters: A separate analysis by a science collaborative called World Weather Attribution finds that human-induced warming has made this kind of heat wave much more likely and severe compared to the beginning of the 20th century.

  • "For the average over France we find that the probability has increased by at least a factor five. ... However, the observations show it could be much higher still, a factor 100 or more," per the report.

Go deeper, via AP: June was Europe’s hottest on record as climate change bites

Go deeper