FOG BLOG CLIMATE LOG: JULY ON TRACK TO BE HOTTEST ON RECORD , EVEN IN 120,000 YEARS!

'We are in absolutely new record territory:' July could be the hottest month in 120,000 years July is likely to be the hottest month ever, according to just-released data from climate scientists.

A group of experts from around the world gathered Wednesday in a media briefing to report new heat data for July that suggests the month will break a record.

According to Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist at Leipzig University in Germany, projections show that July could be the hottest month on Earth. "Many of you will have heard about the daily record early on this month. We just exceeded 17 degrees (Celsius)," Haustein said, referring to the global average temperature. "And this is essentially what you're going to see here."

The average temperature is at least 0.2 C warmer than the previous record-breaking month of July 2019, and the current projections suggest that the Earth hasn't been this hot in approximately 120,000 years.

The July predictions follow a string of data experts are watching to understand the impacts of human emissions on the world and the natural disasters that come with it.

Among the data are smaller records that have been broken in recent weeks.

On July 4, the world soared to an average temperature of 17.18 C, making it the hottest day in at least 44 years. June also broke a record this year, when the global temperature climbed 1.05 C above the 20th Century average, the first time a summer month was more than one degree Celsius hotter than normal.

Although Wednesday's presentation, embargoed until Thursday morning, came days before the end of the month, scientists are looking ahead to what they expect the final data to show.

WHAT RECORDS COULD JULY BREAK?

According to Haustein's data, which combines information from multiple weather agencies, this month is expected to between 1.3 and 1.7 C above the average global temperature calculated before humans began burning fossil fuels.

This is likely to break the July 2019 record by 0.2 C, a 174-year-old observational record.

"Which begs the question: Is it the warmest July? Usually, you'll wait until the month is over, but then again, as you can tell, it's (already) quite above the old record," Haustein said Wednesday.

Haustein said a weather monitoring product combined historical observations from around the world with current temperatures registered by the Global Forecast System, to predict whether July would exceed the 2019 record.

"It's certain at this point already that we are in absolutely new record territory," he said.