Scorched Earth: July was ‘absolutely’ the planet’s hottest month ever recorded, Nasa says

Nasa data has revealed the Earth’s temperature reached its highest point in 136 years of record-keeping during July.

“July 2016 was absolutely the hottest month since the instrumental records began,” tweeted Gavin Schmidt, who directs Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which is responsible for temperature measurements.

It was the 10th-straight month of record-breaking temperatures in Nasa’s analysis, a substantial 0.1 Celsius warmer than the previous hottest July in 2011.

“It’s a little alarming to me that we’re going through these records like nothing this year,” said Jason Furtado, a professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma.

“Each month just gives another data point that makes the evidence stronger that we’re changing the climate,” added Simon Donner, professor of climatology at the University of British Columbia.

July is usually the hottest month of the year, as it coincides with the peak of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. But this July was 0.84 Celsius above the long-term (1951-1980) average.