July may have been the world's hottest month in recorded history.
That's according to the latest data, and it comes right off the back of the hottest June temperatures ever recorded.
We're now on track for the past five years to go down as the world's hottest five-year period, and that's prompted a fresh climate change warning from the UN Secretary-General.
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"If we do not take action on climate change now, these extreme weather events are just the tip of the iceberg. And that iceberg is also rapidly melting," said António Guterres.
And that is the sobering truth. Unprecedented wildfires in the Arctic last month triggered the mass melting of Greenland's ice sheet, with temperatures up by 10 to 15C, while Europe, Alaska and the UK all sweltered through heat waves.
"This is exactly what we'd expect from climate change, temperatures are gradually going up so it becomes easier and easier to get record high temperatures," climate change scientist James Renwick told Newshub.
New Zealand's leading climate scientists are gathering for a conference on Friday and they say there hasn't been any concrete action towards slowing global warming - but it's never too late.
"We need to plan for the worst, while we hope and work for the best," said Dr Renwick.
Wellington City is among those doing just that.
"We now realise it's far more dire than we first predicted, and we were probably a bit too conservative," said Wellington City Councillor David Lee.
In 2013 Wellington City Council predicted a sea-level rise of 60 centimetres by 2100. Now they've more than doubled that prediction to a rise of 1.5 metres.
"Climate change is climate reality and that's it's something we need to deal with as the here and now," said Lee.
It's a problem that every community all over the world will have to face up to.
Newshub.
