World hits streak of record temperatures as UN warns of 'climate hell'

FILE PHOTO: A plant sprouts between the cracked ground of La Vinuela reservoir during a severe drought in La Vinuela, near Malaga, southern Spain August 8, 2022. A prolonged dry spell and extreme heat that made last July the hottest month in Spain since at least 1961, have left Spanish reservoirs at just 40% of capacity on average in early August, well below the ten-year average of around 60%, official data shows.REUTERS/Jon Nazca/File Photo

BRUSSELS/GENEVA (Reuters) -Each of the past 12 months ranked as the warmest on record in year-on-year comparisons, the EU's climate change monitoring service said on Wednesday, as U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for urgent action to avert "climate hell".

The average global temperature for the 12-month period to the end of May was 1.63 degrees Celsius (2.9 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial average - making it the warmest such period since record-keeping began in 1940, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said.