July 2016 Was the Hottest Month in Recorded History

There might’ve been a time, back in the mists of prehistory, when the oceans boiled and the ground was hot enough to render bacon. But in the modern era, it’s safe to say we’re living in the warmest period known to humankind, with July 2016 going down as the hottest month globally in 136 years of records.

July's torridness beat out the previous record-holding Julys of 2009, 2011, and 2015 by 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. And now it “appears almost a certainty that 2016 also will be the warmest year on record,” says GISS director Gavin Schmidt.