August was hottest ever recorded, third straight month to set record

AMSTERDAM – August 2023 was the hottest August on record globally, the third straight month in a row to set such a record following the hottest-ever June and July, the European Union’s Copernicus climate change panel said on Wednesday.

Temperatures in August are estimated to have been around 1.5 deg C higher than the pre-industrial average for the 1850 to 1900 period.

Pursuing efforts to

limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 deg C

is a central pledge of the Paris international climate change agreement adopted by 196 countries in 2015.

July 2023 remains the

hottest month ever recorded,

while August’s record makes the Northern Hemisphere’s summer the hottest since records began in 1940.

Copernicus deputy head, Dr Samantha Burgess, said: “Global temperature records continue to tumble in 2023.”

She added: “The scientific evidence is overwhelming: We will continue to see more climate records and more intense and frequent extreme weather events impacting society and ecosystems, until we stop emitting greenhouse gases.”

In Europe, August was wetter than normal over large parts of central Europe and Scandinavia, leading to flooding, while France, Greece, Italy and Portugal saw droughts that led to wildfires.

Well-above-average temperatures also occurred over Australia, several South American countries and around much of Antarctica in August.

Meanwhile, the global ocean saw the warmest daily surface temperature on record, and had its warmest month overall.

With four months left, 2023 is so far the second-hottest on record, only marginally behind 2016. REUTERS