A 13-month streak of global temperature records just ended. Here are five takeaways

After 13 months of what felt like an endless breaking of heat records, the streak came to an end last month—just barely. The European climate agency Copernicus said Thursday that July 2024's average heat just missed surpassing July of last year. While the slightly cooler month is good news and could provide some minor relief for people exposed to extreme heat, scientists warned that the root cause of the rising temperatures, climate change, remains the same.