Climate bulletin - July 2013

Summary of the world's climate in July 2013.

The global average temperature for July 2013 was 0.51 ± 0.20 °C above the 1961-1990 average (up slightly from June). Sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) in the Tropical Pacific remain close to or below the long-term average, but together with other indicators, conditions are still El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) neutral.
During July, much of Europe and north Africa were warmer than the 1961-1990 average. Other regions such as eastern Australia, the west of North America (and the east), Brazil and South Africa were also warmer than average. Eurasia was split into bands with the far north being warmer than average, a band to the north of the Caspian Sea, Aral Sea and Lake Baikal being cooler than average, then an area from the Persian Gulf to Japan which was warmer than average. Finally, large areas of India were colder than average.
SSTs were a degree or more warmer than average across large areas of the northern hemisphere. Areas of below average SST in the northern hemisphere were found to the south of Greenland, near the Azores and to the north of the Caribbean. In the tropics, SSTs were below average in the eastern Pacific and northern Indian Ocean with more limited areas of below average temperatures in the eastern Atlantic and further south in the Indian Ocean, but overall the tropical average was above the long-term average. There is limited coverage in the Southern Hemisphere from ships and drifting buoys, but an area of cooler than average SST can be discerned to the south of Africa, with above average SSTs around 45 °S in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
Arctic sea-ice extent in July 2013 was higher than in the past three years but below any value recorded before 2005. In contrast Antarctic sea ice was higher than in the past two years and comparable to the record July extent observed in 2010.

Last updated: 3 September 2013