Summer swelter: Earth just had its hottest June on record
Last month was the Earth's hottest June ever recorded, federal climate scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday.
It beat out 2016 for the hottest June with records going back to 1880.
The warmth was most pronounced in Europe, where a record-shattering heat wave baked much of the continent for several days at the end of the month. France set its all-time heat record of 114.6 degrees, while dozens of other June heat records were set in Spain, Germany and Switzerland, NOAA said.
Austria had its warmest June since records there began in 1767 when Mozart was an 11-year-old child prodigy.
In addition to Europe, record warm temperatures during June 2019 were present across parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. No land or ocean areas had record cold June temperatures, NOAA said.
Berkeley Earth lead scientist Robert Rohde estimated 41 countries may have set their record warmest June, including Bangladesh, Hungary, Iraq, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Turkey, the Weather Channel reported.
Overall, last month, the planet was about 1.71 degrees warmer than an average June. Earth's average temperature in June is 59.9 degrees.
June 2019 also marked the 414th consecutive month that the planet's temperature was warmer-than-average, NOAA said. That dates back to 1984, during the first Reagan Administration.
At 1.71°F above average, the June 2019 global temperature ranks as the warmest June on record: https://t.co/bDQR49npk1 #StateOfClimate pic.twitter.com/nL2IEFLdnq
— NOAA NCEI Climate (@NOAANCEIclimate) July 18, 2019
Other organizations, including NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the Japan Meteorological Agency and Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service, also said June was record warm.
The U.S. didn't get in on the global heat parade, where it was only slightly warmer than average nationally. However, the Southeast was quite warm as Florida sweltered through its third-warmest June on record.
The amount of sea ice in both the Antarctic and Arctic was far below average in June: Antarctic ice was at its smallest area on record for the month. Arctic sea ice area was its second-smallest.
NOAA's report also said that so far 2019 was tied for the second warmest year on record, behind only 2016. There's a 100% chance that 2019 will end up as one of the five warmest years on record, NOAA said.
Scientists say the record heat is what is expected with man-made climate change.
Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann told the Guardian that “we have shown in recent work that the record warm streaks we’ve seen in recent years cannot be explained without accounting for human-caused planetary warming. Those warm streaks are certain to not only continue but to worsen if we continue to burn fossil fuels and warm the planet,” he said.
NASA global mean June temperature is out! Guess what - it's been the hottest June on record. Definitely felt like that in Germany... #climatecrisis #FridaysForFuture pic.twitter.com/vkOFP22NNM
— Stefan Rahmstorf (@rahmstorf) July 15, 2019
Contributing: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Global warming: Hottest June on record was last month