The world's oceans recorded their hottest temperatures ever in July, driven partly by developing El Niño conditions, while Western Europe simultaneously experienced exceptional heat waves, severe droughts, and widespread wildfires.
Ocean temperatures outside polar regions reached an average of 20.96 degrees Celsius in July, surpassing the previous record of 20.89 degrees set in 2023, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service. The exceptionally warm seas were fuelled by emerging El Niño conditions in the Pacific, a natural weather pattern that when combined with human-caused global warming can intensify temperature spikes and extreme weather events globally.
Simultaneously, Western Europe has been gripped by an unprecedented heat crisis. The region recorded its highest-ever combined temperatures for June and July, averaging 21.62 degrees Celsius—nearly 2.8 degrees above normal. France, Spain, parts of Germany, and the United Kingdom have all experienced severely depleted rainfall and soil moisture levels. The prolonged hot and dry conditions have created ideal circumstances for massive wildfires, with exceptional activity recorded across the continent last month. In the UK specifically, England and Wales recorded their driest July in 190 years of record-keeping, leading authorities to declare drought conditions across large areas and warn of further declarations if dry weather continues.
Scientists attribute the intensifying pattern of extreme weather to climate change, which is increasingly making conditions once considered exceptional into the norm. According to the Met Office, the hottest day of the year in southern England is now 4.5 degrees warmer than it was during the 1961-1990 baseline period. The warmer oceans are driving longer and fiercer marine heatwaves, causing widespread coral bleaching and threatening fisheries, while also loading tropical storms with heavier rainfall and raising sea levels through thermal expansion.
