The past eight years have been the hottest years on record, NASA and the US National Oceanic Administration (NOAA) have confirmed. Meanwhile, 2021 was the sixth hottest year on record, the agencies said.
"The fact is that we have now entered a new regime ... probably the warmest decade in many, many hundreds, maybe thousands of years," said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
There was a sweltering heatwave in Europe. A reading of 48.8 degrees Celsius in Sicily could break the European record for maximum temperatures, while that information is being verified. Overall, according to NOAA, July 2021 was the hottest month ever recorded by humans.
In addition to discomfort, the heat wave took a serious toll on the population. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the extreme heat in the Pacific Northwest resulted in a sharp increase in emergency room visits. In the north, the inferno has nearly destroyed the small town of Litton in British Columbia.
According to NASA, temperatures could have been even higher in 2021 if not for La Niña.
A little background: La Niña is a recurring climatic phenomenon characterised by colder-than-average waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, affecting weather patterns around the world