The world is getting hotter, on land and sea. Both the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have recorded new records for July.

As heatwaves sweep across mainland Europe and fire rage in Greece, July was the globe’s 14th month in a row of record warmth.

The world’s sea-surface temperatures in July were the second-warmest on record, ending a run of 15 consecutive record-setting months too.

The average July global surface temperature was 1.21C above the 20th-century average of 15.8C, and temperatures were above average across much of the global land surface except for Alaska, southern South America, eastern Russia, Australia and western Antarctica. Africa, Asia and Europe had their warmest Julys on record, while North America saw its second-warmest July.

Many areas of the Mediterranean and Balkans were gripped by extended heatwaves in July, causing casualties and impacting public health. A rapid attribution study by scientists in World Weather Attribution said that the Mediterranean heatwave in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and Morocco would not have occurred without human induced climate change

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