Did You Suffer a Sweltering August? You Weren't Alone. It Tied for the Month With the Hottest Global Temperatures on Record

This August was exceptionally hot, tying with July 2023 for the highest global temperatures ever recorded since 1940, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. The average surface air temperature across the globe was a scorching 62.53 degrees Fahrenheit, nearly 3 degrees above pre-industrial levels - surpassing the 2.7-degree limit set by the Paris Agreement, a landmark climate treaty signed by nearly 200 nations in 2015.

Samantha Burgess, a climate scientist and deputy director of Copernicus, notes that these observations highlight how climate change is causing extreme weather conditions globally, with dire consequences for communities, economies, and ecosystems.

Western Europe experienced its hottest summer ever, enduring consecutive heatwaves that resulted in at least 35,000 deaths. Similarly, the contiguous United States recorded its warmest August on record, with an average temperature of 75.6 degrees Fahrenheit - a whopping 3.5 degrees above the 20th-century average. This made it the warmest season in the U.S., stretching back to 1895, as per the National Centers for Environmental Information.

July was even hotter, averaging 76.9 degrees Fahrenheit and breaking the notorious Dust Bowl record set in July 1936.

Other regions around the world were also drier than average, including northern Mexico, parts of Canada, the Maghreb, parts of the Horn of Africa, Siberia, and vast areas of Asia, China, South America, South Africa, and northern Australia, as per Copernicus data. Moreover, the average sea surface temperature outside the polar regions reached a record-high 69.9 degrees Fahrenheit for the month of August, surpassing the previous record set in 2023.

Scientists attribute this record-breaking summer heat to two factors: a strengthening El Niño in the Pacific Ocean and global heating resulting from human use of fossil fuels. While El Niño alone is not solely responsible for these temperatures, it has been intensifying in recent years, likely due to human-induced climate change.

Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London, stresses that El Niño is merely amplifying the heat caused by our continued burning of fossil fuels, and until we halt this practice, record-shattering months will continue to occur.

The Copernicus findings align with a recent United Nations report warning that surpassing the Paris Agreement’s 2.7-degree threshold is almost inevitable. The report, titled "Limiting Overshoot" and published on September 2, urges the world to prioritize minimizing peak warming and finding ways to reduce temperatures. Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, calls the Copernicus report a "stark warning sign" from our warming planet, underscoring the urgent need to stop burning coal, oil, and gas.

Clair Barnes, an extreme weather researcher at Imperial College London, echoes this sentiment, emphasizing that until we stop burning fossil fuels, these extreme weather records will keep breaking and the impacts will worsen faster than our ability to adapt.