A young woman dipping her head into a fountain in Budapest, Hungary. Photo: Laszlo Balogh/Reuters

Earth dialled up the heat last month, smashing temperature records for June and the first half of the year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calculated that the world’s average temperature in June hit 16.38˚C, breaking the old record set last year by 0.12˚C.

NOAA climate scientist Jessica Blunden said temperature records – going back 136 years – are usually only broken by one- or two-hundredths of a degree.

The first six months of the year beat a record set in 2010, averaging 14.35˚C.

Blunden said: “There is almost no way that 2015 isn’t going to be the warmest on record.”