United Kingdom: July on Record, Partly Fuelled by Developing El Niño Conditions in the Pacific, According to the EU's Climate Monitoring

Global oceans recorded their hottest July on record, partly fuelled by developing El Niño conditions in the Pacific, according to the EU's climate monitoring service. The average sea surface temperature (SST) outside the world's polar regions - between 60 degrees north and 60 degrees south - was 20.96C in July, beating the previous July high of 20.89C, set in 2023. El Niño is a natural weather pattern in the Pacific, but when combined with human-driven global warming can cause temperature spikes and more extreme weather. Last month was the joint second-warmest July globally on record, with temperatures 1.47C above the estimated pre-industrial average, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Sea temperatures remained exceptionally high across much of the tropical Pacific, where El Niño conditions are developing and forecast to strengthen in the coming months.