Heat records

Common Dreams Amid predictions that the year could go down as one of the warmest on the books, Death Valley, California just beat its own record for the hottest month ever measured in the United States.

According to data compiled by the Washington Post, the average July temperature there averaged 108.1°F (42.3°C), topping the record the same location "set a year ago by about a half-degree."
The new record temperature, according to weather records expert Maximiliano Herrera, comes in just below the world record for hottest monthly temperature anywhere—108.5°F (42.5°C)—which was recorded in July 2000 at Dehloran, Iran.

Mother Jones -Last year was the warmest ever recorded on Earth that didn’t feature an El Niño, a periodic climatic event that warms the Pacific Ocean, according to the annual state of the climate report by 500 climate scientists from around the world, overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and released by the American Meteorological Society.

Climate change cast a long shadow in 2017, with the planet experiencing soaring temperatures, retreating sea ice, a record high sea level, shrinking glaciers and the most destructive coral bleaching event on record.

Overall, 2017 was third warmest year on record, NOAA said, behind 2016 and 2015. Countries including Spain, Bulgaria, Mexico and Argentina all broke their annual high temperature records.