July was hottest month on record, scientists say

July 2016 was hottest month on Earth since record keeping began in the 1880s, two federal temperature reports concluded this week. 

The average global temperature in July was 61.97 degrees Fahrenheit, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported Wednesday, or about 1.57 degrees above average. 

{mosads}July was the 15th month in a row to break its temperature record, the longest string of record-breaking heat in NOAA’s catalog. Since July is generally the warmest month of the year, it also set the mark for hottest overall month on record, breaking the record set last July. 

NOAA record-keeping goes back to 1880. 

NASA’s conclusions, announced on Monday, mirror NOAA’s, though the modeling is a bit different: July was 1.51 degrees warmer than average in its calculations, officials told The Associated Press. That’s about 0.18 degrees warmer than the previous hottest months of July 2011 and July 2015.

Scientists generally attribute the string of record-breaking heat to manmade climate change, noting that the potent El Niño weather pattern that drove up global temperatures last winter has long since ended.

This year is widely expected to set a new annual temperature record, breaking the one set last year. The first seven months of 2016 were 1.85 degrees above the 20th century average, according to NOAA, breaking last year’s mark by 0.34 degrees.