July was much hotter than usual in much of Europe and the eastern United States, and 2010 may be on track to be the warmest year yet, according to data analyzed by US space agency NASA, dpa reported.
July was more than 5 degrees Celsius above normal in eastern Europe, including Moscow, and parts of eastern Asia and the eastern United States were also unusually warm, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies said based on an analysis surface temperatures.
But cooler than average temperatures in central Asia and South America put the global average temperature in July just 0.55 degrees warmer than the usual.
2010 could be the warmest year since the space agency began tracking the climate in 1951, but forecasts of cooler temperatures through the rest of the year could instead result in a near tie for warmest year with 2005.