WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported on Thursday that July was the Earth's hottest month in the 140-year record.

Much of the planet sweltered in unprecedented heat in July, as temperatures soared to new heights in the hottest month ever recorded, according to NOAA.

The average global temperature in July was 16.74 Celsius Degrees, about 0.96 degrees above the 20th-century average of 15.78 degrees, according to NOAA.

It was echoed by the U.S. space agency NASA's data released on Thursday, which showed that the global mean temperature anomaly in July was 0.93 Celsius Degrees above the 1951-1980 July average.

The last July was the 43rd consecutive July and 415th consecutive month with above-average global temperatures, adding more evidences to the global warming. Nine of the 10 warmest Julys have occurred since 2005, NOAA found.

Deke Arndt, chief of climate monitoring for NOAA said at a conference call that July was in the vicinity of a record without a strong El Nino being present and it was "almost entirely due to climate change."

Also, this year was the hottest year to date for parts of North and South America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the southern half of Africa, portions of the western Pacific Ocean, western Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

Average Arctic sea ice set a record low for July, running 19.8 percent below average, which surpassed the previous historic low of July 2012, and average Antarctic sea-ice coverage was 4.3 percent below the 1981-2010 average, making it the smallest for July in the 41-year record, according to NOAA. Enditem

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