June 2023 temperature anomaly relative to the average June temperature from 1951 to 1980. NASA
Last month was the hottest June ever recorded globally, according to multiple independent analyses.
Surface temperatures were 1.89 degrees F (1.05 degrees C) above average, according to NOAA, and 0.23 degrees F (0.13 degrees C) warmer than the previous record-holder, June 2020. Analyses from NASA and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service also found that June 2023 was the hottest ever.
For the third month in a row, ocean temperatures reached an all-time high, with warm waters melting ice and fueling the growth of tropical storms. Sea ice dropped to its lowest June level on record, while nine named storms emerged globally, more than is typical for early summer.
NOAA says that there is a 97 percent chance that 2023 will rank among the five hottest years ever recorded. Persistently high temperatures are raising fears of deadly heat waves in the coming months.
Last summer, severe heat killed more than 61,000 people in Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent, a new study finds. Study coauthor Hicham Achebak, of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, said the “acceleration of warming observed over the last 10 years underlines the urgent need to reassess and substantially strengthen prevention plans.”
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