The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) classified this past July as the Earth's hottest month ever recorded.
According to BBC News, such records began in 1880 and since, nine of the 10 hottest individual months have occurred over the past decade. July 2015 was 0.08 degrees hotter than July 1998, the previous record-holder, a significant margin in terms of global temperature.
"The world is warming. It is continuing to warm. That is being shown time and time again in our data," Jake Crouch, physical scientist at NOAA's National Center for Environmental Information, said in a statement. "Now that we are fairly certain that 2015 will be the warmest year on record, it is time to start looking at what are the impacts of that? What does that mean for people on the ground?"
The NOAA noted the U.S. did not experience extreme heat in the record-setting month, but several countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Asia did, according to USA Today. Iran, France, Germany, the U.K., and Africa all experienced historically hot months.
"While the impact of increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a key driver of rising temperatures, another important factor is El Nino. This natural phenomenon, which appears as a large swathe of warm water in the Pacific every few years, is known to push up global temperatures," Matt McGrath, BBC Environment Correspondent, wrote in an analysis. "In recent days there have been reports that this year's El Nino will be particularly intense. As a result, many experts believe that 2015 will be the warmest year on record by some margin."
