July was one of the planet's hottest months on record dating to the 19th century, according to separate, just-released government reports.

NOAA's July global climate report calculated that July 2026 tied 2024 as Earth's hottest July, with the planet's temperature 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average.

July is the planet's hottest month because the sun's most direct radiation shines on the Northern Hemisphere, home to two-thirds of the Earth's land. Land heats up faster than water.

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A separate analysis from the European Copernicus Climate Change Service found July 2026 tied for Earth's second-hottest month with 2024, slightly behind July 2023.

It's common for separate analyses of global temperatures to differ by a few fractions of a degree.

America topped a 90-year record

The Lower 48 states had their record hottest month in July, according to NOAA.

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The monthly mean temperature in July 2026 over the contiguous U.S. was just over 0.1 degrees warmer than July 1936, America's previous record-hottest month, according to NOAA's calculations.

As you can see in the map below, almost the entire Lower 48 was warmer than average in July.

The Rockies and Northern Plains were most anomalously hot in July. Wyoming had by far its hottest month, crushing July 2007 by almost a full degree.

Billings, Montana (111 degrees); Rapid City, South Dakota (112); and Salt Lake City (109) each set all-time record highs in July 2026.

Record ocean temperatures

Among other areas of the globe with record warmth in July were the planet's oceans.

According to the European C3S, the planet's oceans outside the polar regions have been record warm for this time of year each day from June 19 through the end of July.

As of the end of July, these ocean temperatures were just shy of the all-time ocean temperature record from March 2024, C3S found.

The rapidly intensifying El Niño, as well as widespread record-warm ocean water in the tropical Pacific Ocean, can be seen in the NOAA analysis below.

(MORE: What is El Niño and how could it affect the weather?)

Western Europe's hottest summer, so far

The June-July period was the hottest on record in western Europe, according to a monthly report released by the

July was France's hottest month since 1900, according to MeteoFrance, topping their previous record from the historic and deadly August 2003.

Wales also had its record warmest July, while England and Spain tied their record warmest July, according to the C3S.

Parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Italy had a record-hot June-July as well.

This was triggered by two exceptional heat waves in each month. In France, a 14-day late June heat wave was followed by a 16-day heat wave in early-mid July.

Will 2026 be Earth's hottest year?

The short answer is likely not.

NOAA's global temperature rankings outlook calculated there's no chance this year will eventually top 2024's record by year's end.

However, they did calculate a 61% chance that 2026 will either be the second- or third-warmest year.

Despite what could be a record-strength El Niño, there's usually a lag between the heat released from this warm water and air temperatures.

The recent trend has shown it's the year after the El Niño peaks that ends up being the planet's record warmest.

That happened with the most recent El Niño three years ago. That El Niño peaked in late 2023, which set the planet's warmest year. But the year after leapfrogged 2023 as the current record-warm year.

Each of Earth's 10 warmest years since 1850 has occurred since 2015, according to NOAA.

Parts of the US could have a record-warm year

That doesn't mean parts of the planet won't have a record-warm year.

Through July, eight U.S. states have had their warmest year-to-date through July, shown in red on the map below, including California, Colorado and Texas.

Over two dozen major cities with longer histories of weather data have had a record-warm year so far, including Dallas, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Salt Lake City, according to the Southeast Regional Climate Center.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.

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