While July is the warmest month of any year in the Northern Hemisphere, this month—July 2019—is shaping up to be the hottest month ever recorded. All-time temperature records are being broken across North America and Europe. More wildfires than normal are raging across Russia, burning more than 7 million acres so far. Heat waves are affecting many parts of the Arctic and Greenland’s ice sheet, creating one of the “greatest melting events ever recorded.” While people and animals are still finding ways to enjoy the warm weather, they are also working to cope with the extremes.
July: The Hottest Month
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A person standing next to the Eiffel Tower holds a smartphone indicating a temperature of 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in Paris on July 25, 2019, as a heatwave hit the French capital. #
Bertrand Guay / AFP / Getty -
A tourist walks during sunset after a hot day near the sea on Makronissos Beach in the southeast resort of Ayia Napa, on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, on July 27, 2019. #
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An aerial view through an aircraft window shows smoke from wildfires rising above the Zhigansky district of the Republic of Sakha, Russia, in this handout picture obtained by Reuters on July 30, 2019. #
Russian Emergencies Ministry in the Republic of Sakha / Reuters -
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In New Delhi, India, residents fill containers with drinking water from a municipal tanker on July 1, 2019. Worsening drought conditions and record-high temperatures this summer drove up demand and prices for water. #
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A boat carrying tourists motors past an iceberg at the mouth of the Ilulissat Icefjord during unseasonably warm weather near Ilulissat, Greenland, on July 30, 2019. The Sahara heat wave that recently sent temperatures to record levels in parts of Europe is arriving in Greenland. Climate change is having a profound effect in the country, where summers in the past several decades have become longer and the rate at which glaciers and the Greenland ice cap are retreating has accelerated. #
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Birds fly over the Yenisei River, shrouded in smoke from wildfires, in the Siberian Taiga area, outside the village of Sizaya, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, on July 22, 2019. #
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The dried-out bank of a pond is pictured on July 22, 2019, in the Dombes region of Villars-les-Dombes, France, in the French department of Ain, dubbed the "1,000-ponds region." Farmers, private households, and wildlife around Europe are suffering from a drought following recent record temperatures that scorched much of the continent. People in some French areas were told not to wash their car or water plants, with restrictions elsewhere calling for a total cutback on all but essential use, such as drinking water. #
Philippe Desmazes / AFP / Getty -
A man cools off at a mist station installed at Shiokaze Park in Tokyo on July 25, 2019, during the beach-volleyball test event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Tokyo 2020 organizers tested everything from misting sprays to air-conditioned tents in trial runs of heat-mitigation measures on July 25, a year before the games get under way. #
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Tourists eat fruit in a giant ice bucket to cool down on a hot summer day at a tourist attraction in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, on July 25, 2019. #
VCG via Getty -
The Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 8 satellite captured this image of a wildfire burning in Qeqqata Kommunia, western Greenland, on July 10, 2019. The fire was contained within days. #
NASA Earth Observatory / USGS -
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