MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE AS OF JULY 2024

Air Temperature

This July, the average air temperature in Russia reproduced the record-breaking value set in July 2010. It was the ever hottest July in Siberia, and as hot as the unprecedented July of the previous year in the Asian territory of the country.

In the ETR, the month started from very hot weather. New records of heat where set in the north-west, in the central and Volga regions, in Crimea and in Kuban. The thermometer readings in the south rose to 40° at times, and the air temperature anomalies for the first decade were 3-5° or higher.

In the second decade, abnormal heat generally survived in the south and west of the ETR where new temperature maxima were recorded again. In Crimea, the air would heat up to above 40°, and the temperature anomalies for the second decade reached +6 or more degrees.

The long-awaited cool weather came in the third decade only, and the decade-averaged air temperature in the ETR became normal again or even sub-normal in some locations, but the temperatures above 40° were still measured in the resorts of the Krasnodar Territory, and new temperature maxima over 30° were recorded in the Murmansk Region.

As a result, this July was the hottest for the entire history of meteorological observations in the North Caucasus, and was ranked the second hottest after July 2010 in the south of the ETR.

In Siberia, abnormal heat prevailed for most of the month. New temperature maxima were recorded in Trans-Baikal, Buryatia, Kolyma, Kamchatka and Yakutia, as well as in the Tomsk, Kemerovo and other southern Regions where the air temperature in some places remained higher than 30° for as long as a week.

The only exceptions where the monthly-average temperature was less than normal were the north-east of the country, Yamal, and the estuary of the Ob river. The rest of the Russian Federation received more heat than normal for July: the weather in Siberia as well as in the central and southern regions of the ETR was 2-3 or more degrees warmer than usual.

The air temperatures everywhere in East Asia were above-normal. In China, July 2024 was the hottest in the history of meteorological observations; remarkably, the average temperature in each next July of the past four years outranked the ones of all years before. The thermometers in China and in its neighbouring Japan sometimes rose above 40°, setting new temperature maxima.

The air temperatures in South-East Asia were above-normal as well, in excess of +33-35° in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

In India, the anomalies of monthly-averaged temperature were weakly negative in the east of the country and of the same absolute value but positive elsewhere, similar to neighbouring Pakistan where the air temperature exceeded 43°, and where this July was the second hottest in history.

The monthly-average air temperature in most of Central Asia was close to normal, slightly above than that in some areas, viz., in the ex-Soviet Central Asian republics, or below-normal in certain regions of Kazakhstan.

The weather in the Near and Middle East was very hot: the thermometers indicated up to 42° in Iran, up to 45° in Oman, up to 46° in Iraq and up to 50° in UAE. New unprecedented values were recorded, and the normal monthly averages in some places were exceeded by two or more degrees.

In North Africa, this July was the second hottest in history, July 2023 remaining the leader. The monthly-average temperature was above-normal almost everywhere, most notably in the north where its anomalies were 2° or higher.

Most of Europe was basking under the umbrella of the Azores anticyclone, with new temperature maxima set in Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova in the east and south-east of the continent where the thermometer readings would rise to 35-40°. Everywhere from Belarus to the Balkans, the anomalies of monthly-averaged air temperatures were in excess of 2-4 or more degrees, and only in the north-west of the continent, namely, in Ireland, the UK, Denmark and the south of Norway, this July was somewhat cooler than usual. Yet overall, it was the warmest July in the history of meteorological observations, beating the previous record of 2006.

The weather in the west of Canada and of the US was very hot: the air temperature exceeded 40° at times, and its monthly-averaged value was over two degrees higher than normal. As for the entire North American continent, this July was warmer than usual almost all around, save for Alaska, northern Canada and, partially, the Midwest of the USA. In the Caribbean, July 2024 was the hottest in the history of meteorological observations.

The monthly-averaged air temperature in the Arctic was among the top ten highest.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the temperature average in July reproduced the record-breaking value (to a 0.1° accuracy) set last year.

In Moscow, the monthly-averaged air temperature was +22.1° with an anomaly of +2.4°, putting this July among the top ten warmest in the meteorological annals of the capital. July 2010 remained the all-time leader: it was almost 4° warmer than this one.

Sea Surface Temperature

The neutral phase of the Southern Oscillation was still active in the equatorial Pacific. In the Northern Hemisphere, positive SST anomalies occupied almost the entire surface of the Ocean; they were highest in the west of the water area, exceeding +2…3 or more degrees east of the Japanese Islands. Abnormally cold water was observed in the Sea of Okhotsk and Bering Sea in the north, as well as at equatorial latitudes.

As for the Atlantic Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere, SST anomalies were positive almost everywhere, reaching +2…3 or more degrees at temperate latitudes; weak negative ones took place off the coasts of Greenland and Iceland.

The average SST of the World Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere was the second highest after the record-breaking maximum measured last year.

Precipitation

This July, the weather in most of the ETR was dry. The monthly precipitation totals amounted to only about half their normal figure in the south of the Central Federal District (the Lipetsk, Tambov, Voronezh, Kursk and Belgorod Regions), in the Volga region, in the Southern and North-Caucasian Federal Districts as well as in the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, and the drought was observed in the Don and Cis-Azov regions, in the Saratov Region and in certain areas of the Krasnodar Territory. Rains came to the south of Russia as late as in the third decade. The amounts of atmospheric moisture were sufficient, or sometimes increased, in the north and north-west of the ETR only; for example, new daily maxima of precipitation totals were recorded in Karelia.

In the Urals and in Siberia, precipitation was normal or above-normal in most areas: in the south of these regions, 1.5-2.0 times above the normal values in some places – there, rains were frequently observed. In the Omsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Kemerovo Regions, up to 70-90 mm of rainwater accumulated per day in some locations.

Rainfall was sub-normal in Yakutia and in the Trans-Baikal, but normal or above-normal in the rest of the Far-Eastern Federal District, e.g., up to 1.5 times the normal figure in Primorye and Kamchatka. This July, multiple downpours hit Primorye, Sakhalin and the south of the Khabarovsk Territory, and the daily precipitation totals reached 50 mm or more from time to time.

The countries of South Asia received a lot of precipitation this July. Its normal amounts in the east and north-east of China and in neighbouring Mongolia were exceeded by 1.5-3.0 or more times. Rains in the south of South Korea were the heaviest in the history of the country: their intensity was over 100 mm/hour, and up to 10% of their normal annual amount fell in an hour in some places.

The countries of South-East Asia were at the mercy of the summer monsoon. Precipitation in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar was as ample as to exceed the normal figures by 1.5-2.0 or more times.

India and its neighbouring Pakistan and Nepal were inundated by rains that caused numerous floods and resulted in the monthly rainwater totals 1.5 or more times greater than normal.

The weather in Central Africa was mostly dry. Heavy rains were observed in the north of Kazakhstan and in Afghanistan only, and led to large-scale flooding in the latter country.

The weather in the Near and Middle East was dry in Iran and Kuwait, while the rest of the region received normal or increased precipitation.

The major amounts of rain in North Africa were shared by West African countries where their monthly totals were 1.5-2.0 times greater than normal.

Drought reigned in south-east Europe (in Romania and Moldova) where substantial losses of crop were reported. Precipitation in Ukraine and in other countries of eastern Europe was scarce. At the end of the month, the Baltic countries were hit by heavy rains such that the normal monthly precipitation quantities could be exceeded in one day and up to 100 mm of rainwater was recorded for twelve hours in a number of weather stations. Abundant rains were also observed in north-west Europe and in Scandinavia, and were reported to cause the floods in the south-east of England.

Most of Canada received sub-normal precipitation. At the same time, torrential rains hit Toronto in the middle of the month and raised the water level in the river by 1.5 metres, thereby leading to flooding that the authorities called the worst in dozens of years before. The weather in most of the US was dry save for the east of the country where their monthly totals were normal or greater than that. The same picture was observed in Mexico.

In Moscow, 71 mm of precipitation fell, equal to the lower limit of the normal precipitation range.