The first half of 2021 was the eighth warmest on record
The Earth’s fifth-warmest June in 142 years was recorded this year, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.
The month was also one of the stormiest on record, the global report of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed.
The average global surface (land and ocean) temperature in the month was 0.88 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average of 15.5°C.
The land-only temperature this June was the highest on record globally. It topped the June 2019 record and was 1.42°C above average.
Climate events map for June, 2021. Source: NOAA
Countries in the Northern Hemisphere, where the mercury levels overshot past June records, contributed to the worldwide rise in temperature.
North Africa and Africa witnessed their hottest June in 2021. “Europe’s June temperature was the second-highest on record while across Asia, June 2021 tied June 2010 for second warmest,” the authors wrote in the report.
The area of Arctic ice shrank to its sixth-lowest level last month to 4.14 million square miles. It was 405,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average, the report showed.
There were nine tropical cyclones across the world in June, one storm short of the record set in 1997 and 2018. In 2021, the Atlantic had four named storms, the most in the first six months along with 2012, 2016, and 2020.
The first half of 2021 was the eighth warmest on record, with a global temperature of 1.42°F (0.79°C) above the 20th-century average of 56.3°F (13.5°C).
The months since the beginning of the year were the third-warmest for Africa, eigth-warmest for Asia, tenth-warmest for South America and eleventh-warmest for North America.
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