The World Meteorological Organization(WMO) said on Tuesday that July was the "hottest month” ever recorded.

The WMO said in a press release that the global average temperature for July was 16-point-95 degrees Celsius, the highest on record for any month since observation and measurements started in 1940, surpassing the previous record average of 16-point-63 degrees in July 2019.

According to the WMO, the 2023 reading was zero-point-72 degrees higher than the average temperature for 1991 to 2020, and around one-point-five degrees warmer than the pre-industrial average.

The international community had committed to limiting the temperature increase to one-point-five degrees Celsius under the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015.

Records for global sea surface temperatures were also broken in July as they reached 20-point-95 degrees Celsius last month, slightly surpassing the previous record set in March 2016.

July’s ocean surface temperatures were zero-point-51 degrees higher than the average temperature for between 1991 and 2020.