This was the hottest June in history, and summer is just getting started

If sometime during the past month you thought, “Damn, it’s hot!” then congrats, your body knows what's up

Published July 6, 2019 12:30PM (EDT)

Tania (not her real name) washes clothes at a shelter in Mexicali where she stayed with her family for several weeks, first waiting to apply for asylum, and then waiting for a court hearing. A week after this photo was taken, she fainted in the heat and was hospitalized. (Anna Maria Barry-Jester/Kaiser Health News) (Anna Maria Barry-Jester/Kaiser Health News)
Tania (not her real name) washes clothes at a shelter in Mexicali where she stayed with her family for several weeks, first waiting to apply for asylum, and then waiting for a court hearing. A week after this photo was taken, she fainted in the heat and was hospitalized. (Anna Maria Barry-Jester/Kaiser Health News) (Anna Maria Barry-Jester/Kaiser Health News)

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Earth, according to the European Union’s Earth observation program, which announced the new record on Tuesday.

The unprecedented heat brought death, destruction, and misery to huge swaths of the planet. By the middle of June, more than 35 people had died as temperatures soared past 120 degrees Fahrenheit in India. France set a new national temperature record: 115 degrees. Multiple wildfires broke out in Spain, one of them, a 10,000-acre blaze, might have started when heat caused a pile of manure to burst into flames. One European heat map turned such a violent shade of red it looked like an open-mouthed skull in mid-scream (you have to see it to believe it). And, get this: Summer is just getting started.

In Europe, June temperatures were 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit higher than normal, according to the European program called Copernicus. Globally, temperatures were about a fifth of a degree higher than normal for the month, beating out the record set in 2016.


By Zoya Teirstein

Zoya Teirstein is a contributing writer from Grist.org.

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