The globe is on a hot streak, setting a heat record last month for the second month in a row.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said last month’s average global temperature was 16.2˚C, which is 0.7˚C higher than the 20th century average. It beat 2010’s old record by one-twentieth of a degree.

While a twentieth does not sound like much, in temperature records it is like winning a horse race by several lengths, said NOAA climate monitoring chief Derek Arndt.

And that’s only part of it. The world’s oceans not only broke a monthly heat record at 17˚C, but it was the hottest the oceans have been for any month, Mr Arndt said.

He added that the June and May records were driven by unusually hot seas, especially the Pacific and Indian oceans.

Heat records in June broke on every continent but Antarctica, especially in New Zealand, northern South America, Greenland, central Africa and southern Asia.

The odds of record hot are going up everywhere... this is what global warming looks like

The US had only its 33rd hottest June.

With a likely El Nino this year – the warming of the tropical Pacific which influences the world’s weather and increases global temperatures – it is starting to look like another extra warm year, said University of Arizona climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck.

Tourists enjoy the sun during a hot summer dayin Mers-les-Bains, northern France. Photo: Benoit Tessier/Reuters

All 12 of the world’s monthly heat records have been set after 1997, while the global cold monthly records were set before 1917.

The first six months of this year were the third warmest on record, coming behind 2010 and 1998, according to NOAA.

Global temperature records go back to 1880 and this is the 352nd hotter-than-average month in a row.

“This is what global warming looks like,” Overpeck said. “Not record hot everywhere all the time, but certainly a reflection that the odds of record hot are going up everywhere around the planet.”