Toronto isn’t the only place on the planet experiencing higher temperatures than normal this summer.
According to the U.S. government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, July was the hottest month ever recorded.
“In this case, first place is the worst place to be,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a news release. “July is typically the world’s warmest month of the year, but July 2021 outdid itself as the hottest July and month ever recorded. This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.”
In July, the average combined land and ocean-surface temperature was 0.93 C above the 20th-century average, topping the previous record, set in July 2016, by 0.01 C.
According to the NOAA, Asia had its hottest July on record whereas Europe tied for its second-hottest July on record.
Last month, the land temperature in the Northern Hemisphere was 1.54 C above average for the month of July.
These hotter temperatures were a factor in massive wildfires burning in Siberia, British Columbia, the western United States and Greece.
This July was also the hottest in Toronto in the past 84 years. A climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada told the Toronto Star that the city’s average daytime high in July was above 30 C, and the average overall temperature was a record 25 C, beating the previous July record of 24.4 C set in 2011.
In addition, droughts are having a huge impact on cattle farmers in western Canada.
On August 14, the B.C. government increased the drought level to 4 in the Okanagan region, which is home to many wine producers.
“At drought level 4, licence holders who do not get their water from local water utilities are being asked to reduce water use by half,” the B.C. government stated in a news release. “Water licence holders who get their water directly from one of the large lakes, or the Okanagan river channel are also being asked to conserve water.”
A version of this story originally appeared in the Georgia Straight.
