People enjoy the sunshine as they pose for a photograph on the south bank of the River Thames in London on July 18, 2016, backdropped by a view of the City of London skyline. The majority of the country was bathed in sun today, with temperatures expected to reach 31C i nsome parts, making it thehottest day of 2016 so far. (AFP/NIKLAS HALLE'N)
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- It seems increasingly likely that 2016 will be hottest year on record, with each of the first seven months setting new temperature records.
According to a monthly report released Wednesday by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), last month was the hottest since record-keeping began in 1880.
"July is typically the hottest month for the globe, and last month didn't disappoint," the NOAA said in a statement.
The combined temperature across global land and ocean surfaces for July was 1.57 degrees Fahrenheit (0.87 degrees Celsius), surpassing the previous record set last year by 0.11 degrees Fahrenheit (0.06 degrees Celsius).
This was also the 15th month in a row to break a monthly heat record, the longest such streak in NOAA's 137 years of record keeping.
For the year to date, the average global temperature was also the warmest on record, at 1.85 degrees Fahrenheit (1.03 degrees Celsius) above the 20th-century average, breaking the previous record set in 2015 by 0.34 degrees Fahrenheit (0.19 degrees Celsius).
