Earth is on track to have its hottest month ever; see how Louisiana cities have fared

Photo caption: An alligator suns in the swamp at Jean Lafitte National Park and Barataria Preserve. Photo courtesy U.S. National Park Service.

This July is set to be the Earth’s hottest month on record as heat waves have crashed over much of the globe. Even in Louisiana, where residents are accustomed to sweltering summers, the temperatures have felt brutal.

Much of south Louisiana had record or near-record heat this summer. Those trends are aligned with the rest of the globe, which has seen two unparalleled months of heat in a row.

The Baton Rouge area had its hottest June and July ever recorded, according to data from the National Weather Service. Lake Charles had its hottest July, and New Orleans had its second.

New Orleans has had four of its top five hottest months of July in the past eight years. Baton Rouge has had two, and Lake Charles has had three. This data reflects predictions by climate scientists that Earth is heating up—and quickly.

That heat can have deadly consequences. Thousands of Louisianans end up in emergency departments each year because of heat-related illnesses, and at least 14 people have died in the South from the heat this year.

After a storm knocked out power for tens of thousands of customers in north Louisiana, a 62-year-old woman in Caddo Parish died from a heat-related cause, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

July 6 was Earth’s hottest day ever recorded, and the first three weeks of July were the warmest three-week period recorded, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Scientists say human activity is to blame for rising global temperatures.

“The extreme weather which has affected many millions of people in July is unfortunately the harsh reality of climate change and a foretaste of the future,” said Petteri Taalas, WMO’s secretary-general, in a news release, urging humanity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

WMO predicts there’s a 98% likelihood at least one of the next five years will be the warmest on record. It also predicts a 66% chance at least one of those years will temporarily exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the internationally-established threshold to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

For Louisiana, that means hot is getting hotter. Like much of the South, the Bayou State has been under frequent heat warnings this summer.

Humidity has added to the summer’s heat, with the heat index, or “feels-like” temperature, sometimes rising above 120 degrees.

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