July is the hottest month ever, according to climate scientists.

Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist at Leipzig University in Germany says we are on to breaking a record from July 2019 by 0.2 Celcius, a 174-year-old observational record.

In fact, she says, it could be the hottest that earth has been in around 120,000 years.

On her website Haustein says, “Based on preliminary data, including forecast temperatures until the end of the month, it is virtually certain that July 2023 is going to be the warmest July by a wide margin with ~0.2°C (+/-0.1°C) above the previous record. Not only will it be the warmest July, but the warmest month ever in terms of absolute global mean temperature. We may have to go back thousands if not tens of thousands of years to find similarly warm conditions on our planet. The reason why we cannot say for sure July 2023 was warmer than any other month since the Eemian, is that our climate proxy data from tree rings etc, have very coarse temporal resolution. Maybe there was the odd month during the Holocene that was warmer, as unlikely as it seems.”

Haustein says the record July comes as El Nino has just been declared in the tropical Pacific. Greenhouse gases are the main reason we are seeing the warmth, but the full effects of El Nino won’t be felt until the second half of the year, with more warm temperatures being felt into at least early 2024.

Scientists say we are seeing the consequences playing out with out-of-control wildfires all over the world and heat records shattering, but also the historic flooding Nova Scotia just experienced.

July global average temperature will be astoundingly warm. Hottest recorded month! At or above the 1.5°C Paris target (add 0.34°C for the 1850-1900 baseline). Ignore all of that at your peril! #ClimateCrisis

More info: https://t.co/d3mUeoDRLZ pic.twitter.com/9W7QNbPxqq

— Karsten Haustein 🌍 (@khaustein) July 28, 2023