Climate change, El Nino push Earth to hottest month ever measured
WASHINGTON — Earth cooked to its hottest month on record in August, blowing far past a key climate threshold, due to the dangerous double whammy of human-caused climate change and a supersized El Nino, according to the European climate service Copernicus. August's sizzle also helped push the globe and the United States to swelter through the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer scientists have…
August 2023 witnessed the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, the European climate service Copernicus reported. The extreme heat was largely attributed to the combined effects of human-induced climate change and a powerful El Nino event. Last month, the planet's average temperature stood at 62.53 degrees Fahrenheit (16.96 degrees Celsius), surpassing the previous record set in July 2023 by a mere 0.01 degree Celsius, which falls within the measurement's uncertainty range.
Consequently, the record was deemed a tie. According to Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead for Copernicus, "It is now time to stop acting surprised that our warming planet keeps getting warmer. This is occurring exactly as forecast by scientists literally decades ago." Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist from Texas A&M University, echoed this sentiment, stating, "The interesting question is not whether we will keep breaking heat records (we will), but whether we're going to do anything about it."
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- Climate change, El Nino push Earth to hottest month ever measured koreatimes.co.kr
