NOAA’s latest monthly global report found that the average global land and ocean surface temperature in August 2023 ranked the month as the warmest August in the 174-year global climate record.
The average global land and ocean surface temperature for the month was 2.25 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 20th-century global average of 60.1 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NOAA.
“Not only was last month the warmest August on record by quite a lot, it was also the globe’s 45th-consecutive August and the 534th-consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th-century average,” said Sarah Kapnick, NOAA Chief Scientist.
Breaking the data down by region, Africa, Asia, North America, South America and the Arctic had their warmest Augusts on record, NOAA said. Europe and Oceania had their second-warmest August on record.
The month also wrapped up the warmest meteorological summer for the Northern Hemisphere on record at 2.59 degrees Fahrenheit above average, NOAA added. Additionally, the Southern Hemisphere was the warmest meteorological winter on record at 1.53 degrees Fahrenheit above average.
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“Global marine heat waves and a growing El Niño are driving additional warming this year, but as long as emissions continue driving a steady march of background warming, we expect further records to be broken in the years to come,” Kapnick noted.
Worldwide, the period from January to August ranked as the second-warmest on record at 1.55 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average of 57.3 degrees Fahrenheit. NOAA noted that the chance that 2023 will become one of the two warmest years on record stands at 95%.
For the contiguous U.S. specifically, the country saw its 9th-warmest August in the 129-year record.