July Sets Record for Heat, Officials Say

The White House will release figures today that confirm what many in the sun-baked Southwest may already suspect: July was the hottest month the planet has seen since reliable record-keeping began more than a century ago. The average global temperature last month was 61.7 degrees, about 1.26 degrees above normal for July and nearly half a degree higher than the previous all-time monthly record set in July 1997, according to a newly completed analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. July is now the seventh consecutive month in which global temperatures broke the previous record for the period--a trend the White House has cited repeatedly in pressing for action to curb global warming. Vice President Gore is scheduled to announce the new numbers in the latest in a series of White House news conferences intended to call attention to the year’s unusually hot weather.