The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a statement on Tuesday that July recorded the hottest temperatures on record in many parts of the world.

According to the WMO, temperatures recorded in July were 0.4°C above the 1991-2020 average over most of Europe.

“This happened despite the passing of La Niña, whose impact should have been refreshing,” Claire Nullis, spokesperson for the OMM, was quoted as saying in the press release.

Ms Nullis added that the unusually warm July was ‘seen in some places, but not globally’, making it one of the three hottest Julys on record.

Based on data from the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, the WMO confirmed that Europe experienced its sixth warmest July.

According to the WMO, Portugal, western France and Ireland broke heat records, while England reached 40 degrees Celsius for the first time in its history.

National records for daily high temperatures were also broken in Wales and Scotland.

July is also Spain’s hottest month on record, with a national average temperature of 25.6 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, temperatures were below average from the Horn of Africa to southern India and much of central Asia to much of Australia.

A landmass stretching from Iceland to Scandinavia through the Baltic states to the Caspian Sea was also cold.

Glaciers have had a “horrendous” summer, Ms Nullis continued, “starting with a light accumulation of snow on the Alps glaciers, weather stations reported, followed by a series of heat waves, which is bad news for Europe’s glaciers.”.