July hottest month on record for the globe: NOAA

July 2016 was the hottest month on record for the globe, breaking last year’s record for the warmest July on record by 0.11 degrees Fahrenheit, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported on Wednesday.

Last month was 1.57 degrees F above the 20th century average, according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. This was the 15th month in a row to break a monthly heat record, surpassing July 2015 as the warmest month ever on record, NOAA said in a press release. Records date back 137 years to 1880.

For the year to date, the average global temperature was 1.85 degrees F above the 20th-century average, NOAA said. This was the highest temperature for this period, breaking the previous record set in 2015 by 0.34 degrees F.

Some more notable findings around the world include:

• The globally averaged sea surface temperature was record high for July and the year to date (January to July). The year-to-date globally averaged land surface temperature was 2.99 degrees F above the 20^th century average of 46.8 degrees F. This was the highest for January to July in the 1880-2016 record, exceeding the previous record of 2015 by 0.61 degrees F;
• The globally averaged land surface temperature tied with 1998 as record high for July and record high for the year to date;
• Asia had its second warmest July; Oceania its fourth, North America its fifth, and Africa and Europe their seventh;
• The average Arctic sea ice extent for July was 16.9% below the 1981–2010 average. This was the third smallest July extent since records began in 1979;
• The average Antarctic sea ice extent for July was 0.2% above the 1981–2010 average, marking the smallest July Antarctic sea ice extent since 2011 and the 19th smallest on record; and
• July 2016 marks the 40^th consecutive July with temperatures at least nominally above the 20^th century average.